Human
by SeverelyTenaciousAlien
Summary: Aella knew she'd never be one of the greats, being only a child of Apollo. However, her life changes when she's sucked into a new world, one where she's considered the monster. -editing/reposting old chapters/returning from haitus-
1. Chapter 1

Nothing ever seemed to happen to children of Apollo. It was a fact of life that Aella had long ago acknowledged and accepted. It was the big three's children and their companions who got to be heroes. She wasn't jealous per say. She knew how much they'd given up to save Camp Half-Blood and just to simply survive. She just wished that for once, she wasn't just another archer sitting around waiting for orders. That would never happen though. With Kronos at their doorstep, petty archers like herself hardly made a dent in the massive ranks of monsters.

It made sense. Percy could control water. Thalia was a daughter of Zeus and a Hunter of Artemis now, so she was a better archer than her and she could call lightning from the sky. There was no beating that. And then there were the chosen children, the ones who weren't the children of the big three, but managed to keep up with them. Annabeth was crazy smart, smarter than Aella could ever hope to be when it came to battle strategy (Aella's most complex plan was 'hide and charge'). Clarissa was wicked with practically any weapon.

Then there was her. What good was she other than to shoot a few measly arrows? She felt like the Hawkeye of the camp, although to be fair even he was cooler with his arsenal of changeable arrowheads and wit. Once she ran out of arrows, she was useless, good for nothing except for blurting out random facts that had little to do with the current situation. Still, it could have been worse. She could have been a child of Mr. D (although to be fair even his kids had fun powers).

Aella had none of the powers of her siblings. She had her bow, but that was it. Nothing special. No healing, no precognition, no talent at singing, and worse, she couldn't even curse people to speak in rhyme or limerick.

These were the thoughts that rolled around in her mind while worked on fletching some new arrows. It was currently winter and the camp was almost completely empty. The war against Kronos was heating up and most of the prolific demigods were away, either at school or on missions. Aella would have rather been at school rather than cooped up at the bare camp, but her mother had insisted she stay. She'd always been overprotective of her, no matter how many times Aella told her she never got anywhere close to the line of fire. She couldn't blame her mother though. The night that Aella had been forced to run away from home she'd burned down the house and destroyed the neighbor's garage all in one go.

Her mom was odd. Half the time she wanted Aella to be at camp, learning to fight under the watchful eye of Chiron. The other half of the time she asked whether or not Aella had gotten into trouble lately, her eyes alight with curiosity. Aella often wondered if the overprotective thing was just an act.

Fletching arrows usually worked to calm her moods, but today, she felt on edge. Sitting on the stoop of the Artemis cabin (she often felt more comfortable there than at her father's cabin), she couldn't help but glance up every so often at the sky, as if expecting it to open up. It was like the calm before the storm. That was ridiculous though. The Camp was as still as ever. Aella assured herself that it was just her usual stupid insecurities gnawing at her. Even so, she couldn't help but notice that the scent of strawberries from the fields was lost to her, replaced by a foul stench she didn't recognize. It was probably a new stink bomb formula from the Hermes' kids.

Aella drew herself up, settling her quiver across her back and unstringing her bow. She wasn't going to be attacked inside the camp, so there was no point risking the limb breaking from leaving it taut. One of these days she'd ask a child of Hephaestus to work her some "magic" into her bow. She still hadn't figured out a good enough bribe for their work though. They weren't cheap. The Hephaestus kids knew what they were worth.

Heading towards the Apollo cabin, Aella noticed the stink getting stronger. Surely the Hermes kids hadn't dropped it in front of her cabin? Gods she hoped not. She'd just cleaned the place for inspections earlier that morning.

A strange, echoing murmur began to roll through her head. Aella stopped, suddenly wondering if she should have left her bow strung after all. The sensation of falling nearly drove her to her knees and a humming began to reverberate in her head. Aella blinked. She was clearly still standing and not falling at all, yet she felt as though she were being disconnected from her own body. The pungent odor was overwhelming, and she found her vision was turning red. No alarms had been raised in the camp. They couldn't be under attack…so what was going on?

"Gods…father?" she whispered, terror starting to gnaw at her.

The voices were getting louder and the red was enveloping her vision. Aella bit her lip until it bled, trying to snap herself out of it.

"Travis? Connor? This isn't funny!" she snapped, "Whatever you're doing, cut it out!"

Her sight was beginning to sharpen again, only she discovered that as the red dissipated, she was no longer in camp. She was in a room, though it was too dark to clearly make out what was around her. She blinked, trying to pull everything into focus.

"Hello?" Her voice came out as a whisper.

Instinctively, she pulled her bowstring out of her pocket and uncoiled it, fitting it easily to her bow.

There were footsteps overhead. Dust fell down into her eyes and she hastily blinked it away. Deep voices, heavy boot falls—she had a feeling this wasn't somewhere she wanted to be.

"I'm a daughter of Apollo damn it," she growled quietly, drawing an arrow from her quiver and fitting it to her bow, "I will not be taken by surprise by who knows what."

"The reports all lead to this house," one of the voices said, sounding somewhat exasperated.

"Of course they do. The creepy abandoned house on the left. One of these days we'll get a job that's less cliché. Got that recording ready?"

"Yeah, but I don't think it's a demon this time. Ruby said—"

"I thought we agreed we weren't talking about her."

Aella heard a door open, followed by the sound of footsteps descending stairs—stairs leading to her. She bit her lip again, wincing as she felt the raw flesh. Shoot first, ask questions later? Generally, a good rule to follow, she'd discovered. She was a good enough shot. She'd just scare them.

Aella took up her stance, drawing back her bowstring, lightly cradling the arrow as she did. As soon as she saw a flicker of movement, she fired. She'd never liked the sound of metal hitting flesh, no matter how satisfying a hit was. It was a disturbing sound one never quite forgot. The sound was drowned out though by a loud proclamation of,

"Son of a bitch!"

Aella notched another arrow as one of the men tumbled down the stairs, landing with yet another profane proclamation. She didn't draw the bow back yet (archery didn't work like the movies after all—it was impossible to stand with a fully drawn bow for an extended period of time). Another man rushed down the stairs, holding up a gun. Aella didn't exactly like the odds of a gun versus her bow, no matter who her father was. The men didn't seem too keen on attacking though. The shorter of the two, the one she'd shot, was currently on the ground clutching the arrow, which sat just below his knee.

"Guess you were an adventurer, huh?" she muttered, unable to stop herself.

"Dude, I just got shot by a girl scout!"

The taller one regarded her from behind his gun, "Who are you?"

She kept herself loose, ready to draw back and fire if needed. Demigods weren't supposed to hurt humans, but what if it was a matter of life and death? Chiron never mentioned that scenario. Another warning shot would be effective if push came to shove, or so she hoped.

"Why're you breaking and entering?" Aella ventured.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she noticed she was in what looked like an old basement. Judging by the cobwebs and shattered lights overhead, the place was probably abandoned. She doubted these men had any more right to be there than her, but she hoped she might be able to distract them with the question, or at least throw them off guard.

"Where are your parents?" the tall man asked.

"Sam, the kid shot me! I don't think she has strong parental guidance."

"What's your name?" the one named Sam asked slowly, gun twitching in his hand slightly almost like an encouraging nod.

For a moment, Aella hesitated. She bit her lower lip, staring at the man's gun rather than his eyes.

"My name is Sam, and that's Dean. Look, let's both just lower our weapons, all right?"

"Lower our weapons? She shot first!"

"Just call me 'Han'," she muttered with a smirk before adding, "Call me Aella."

Sam lowered his gun and after a moment, Aella removed her arrow from the string.

"We're officers," Sam added, taking out a badge and showing it, "We were called to investigate after there were some reports of strange lights at this house. It's been abandoned for a while, so some of the neighbors thought it might be teenagers intruding."

"You're in big trouble, kid! Attacking an officer and trespassing!"

"And you didn't say you were an officer at first why?" Aella looked coldly at Dean, "You didn't announce yourselves. You said it yourself, I'm just a 'kid'. You scared me and I didn't know any better."

"Scared my ass! You shot me!"

"You've said that a few times now…"

Aella took a few cautious steps forward to take the offered badge, looking it over. She had to way of knowing whether it was real or not. It was a point in her education she now wished she had taken the time to expand upon. The badge felt heavy, which made her think it was real. After a moment, she handed it back.

"This doesn't mean I trust you two," Aella commented, "Anyone can show a fancy badge and you're not dressed like officers."

"Can we discuss this later? Like after I get this stick out of my leg?" Dean asked.

"It's not that bad. I didn't use that heavy of an arrowhead and I didn't use the bow's full power."

"Have you ever been shot by an arrow?" Dean snapped back, breaking off the end and standing with Sam's help.

"Yes," Aella replied curtly, "Do you two know how to treat that?"

Then, she smelled it again—that strange, acrid smell that reminded her of the hot springs she'd visited in California with her mother on a business trip. Aella wrinkled her nose, sneezing.

"Sulfur," Sam said suddenly.

"Sulfur? You mean that yellow rock? I didn't know rocks had a smell."

"This one does," Dean replied, his demeanor suddenly rigid.

Aella noticed that he'd drawn his gun at some point. He was fast, she noted, much faster than her on the draw.

"Kid, get out of here now."

Aella gripped her bow, drawing strength from the smooth wood before asking, "Why? What's going on? I smelled that stuff, the sulfur, earlier before I ended up here. Does it cause hallucinations or something? Sort of like what mort—…what people think gave visions to the Oracle of Delphi?"

Dean looked at her sharply, "What did you see?"

"Erm…nothing actually, or all of this. Not sure if I'm hallucinating now, to be frank."

"You're not sure if you're hallucinating and you shot me."

"That makes it sound worse than it actually is. But, yeah, I mean, one minute I'm off doing my own thing and the next I'm here."

Sam moved towards the wall and propped Dean up against it, before walking past Aella, gazing intently at the floor. Sticking his gun into his waistband (which was terrible practice; Chiron had warned those who did use firearms not to do so for fear of shooting off their butt), he reached into his coat pocket, drawing out a large flashlight. Flicking it on, the floor was lit up with an intense brilliance in contrast to the dark basement around. Aella squinted her eyes, adjusting to the sudden burst of light.

As she did, she noticed there was a strange symbol on the floor, painted in what looked like dark maroon paint. The next thing she knew, both men were drawing their guns again, pointing them at her.

"I thought we were done with the gun thing!"

"No hard feelings, kid, we just don't know if you're possessed or not."

"Um, yeah, there was a whole big thing up in Salem for that wasn't there? I'll pass, thanks."

She knew for certain now that they weren't officers unless cops had decided to start taking up exorcism on the side to make money now.

Sam took something out of his pocket. It looked like an old fashion cassette player. Well, she decided it was better than a gun. He pressed a button and the player began to recite some Latin chant. Latin had never been a strong suit for her, although if she concentrated sometimes she could understand.

"Regna terrae, cantate Deo-"

"Vescere bracis meis." Aella interrupted, arching an eyebrow Sam who was still holding the cassette, "Oh? What? I thought we were speaking Latin now for fun."

"Dude, she isn't even twitching. Try turning it up."

The recording continued to play, but Aella couldn't follow what exactly was being said. It was difficult to concentrate though with the floor starting to shake. At first she thought it was in her head, but dust began to sprinkle down from the ceiling and she could hear the groan of old beams protesting to the sudden shift.

"Cut it out!" Dean shouted.

"I'm not doing that!"

Aella debating making a run for it to the stairs, but before she could move something grabbed her ankle and tugged.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam wasn't sure what to make of the girl standing before him. His father had taught him to never judge an opponent simply by their age (anyone could be a monster or a demon) or size, but the girl couldn't have been more than fourteen. It was no wonder she was scared of them. They towered over her and had startled her by trampling into the house.

Still, he was cautious—after all, she'd been the one to shoot first and with a bow of all things.

He knew Dean didn't trust her. Sam didn't even have to glance his way to know the glare in his brother's eyes. He felt like he was missing an important part of the picture though, especially when she mentioned that she'd seemingly been teleported here after smelling sulfur. Was it possible she was one of the special kids that Yellow Eyes had made like him? How was that possible though? They'd all killed each other off or had been killed over the years. He was the last one.

The only thing he was certain of was that she wasn't overshadowed thanks to the exorcism recording.

The feeling of relief was short lived however as the floor began to shake.

"Cut it out!" Dean shouted from somewhere behind Sam.

"I'm not doing that!" the girl, Aella, snapped back, before screaming as a hand shot out from the darkness and grabbed her.

"Aella!" Sam shouted and jumped forward, reaching out to try and snatch her back.

He caught her wrist and tugged, but the force grabbing her was too strong. She was pulled from his grasp and yanked into the darkness beyond. Sam dove after her with a shout, just managing to grab onto her hand again.

"Do not like! Get this thing off of me!" she cried, kicking at whatever was holding her ankle.

"Hang on!"

"Crux sancta sit mihi lux, non draco sit mihi dux. Vade retro santa, nunquam suade mihi vana…"

Sam heard Dean start to chant behind him and from the darkness, there was a scream. The force let go of Aella and he drew her back, cradling her close to him. She was shaking. She's innocent. She has to be, he thought.

* * *

Aella's ankle felt like it was on fire. Without Sam's help, she would have been on the ground still. She'd lost her bow in the struggle, leaving her with a knife as her only form of defense. Is the room turning red? Aella shuddered, sensing a sudden wrongness.

She reached down to grab the bronze knife that she kept tucked into her boot. As it slipped free of the sheath, the red light seemed to explode. Aella closed her eyes against the brightness and hid her face in Sam's chest.

"Oh look...the Winchesters. You weren't supposed to be here yet," a voice echoed from the shadows, "I wondered who broke my little witch. I had to fight to get back into her...but no, you wouldn't do that to me, would you boys?"

As she opened her eyes, she saw a woman was now standing in the center of the room, smirking. The woman reminded her of the daughters of Aphrodite. She was tall, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a red tank top. Her blond hair was long, curled tastefully at the edges in such a manner that Aella knew that woman had way too much time on her hands. However, the similarity to a daughter of Aphrodite ended there. She was covered in blood and seemed less in control then they were.

Aella wanted to ask 'who are you?' but that seemed like the obvious question that the stupid token girl character in the horror movie would ask. Clearly, she didn't want to be that person. Usually, that character was either the first to die or the first to get kissed. Aella didn't want either of those things.

"Demon," Dean muttered.

The woman's eyes glazed over black.

Aella yelped, holding her knife out in front of her, "Styx! Do not like!"

"Shut up!" Dean snapped, "Seriously, kid!"

The woman looked to Aella, smirking, "Well aren't you a surprise? How's that ankle of yours feeling? I have to say, I am a little upset that you didn't allow me in, but judging by your reaction, I think that may be impossible."

"Since when do demons crawl around on the floor snatching at little girls?" Dean poked, arching an eyebrow.

The woman sneered, "The brat's entrance broke my vessel. This body is only standing because I'm in it. Once I'm gone, she's dead. Unfortunately she was so broken even I had trouble puppeting her at first."

"Entrance? So she was brought here?" Sam asked.

"Mmm, yes, but that's about as much as I'm going to tell you," she looked at Aella again, as if she wanted to ask something, but instead said, "I got to cash in early on this deal. The stupid witch was ignorant. Still, worked out for us. He'll be pleased. Vain women are so easy to manipulate."

"He'll be pleased?"

"Oh...yes. Did I slip?"

Aella felt sick. She held her knife up a little higher, drawing away from Sam. She'd wanted an adventure. Now that she seemingly had one, she wasn't exactly sure that she liked it. Looking towards the bloody puppet in front of her, she had a brief moment of panic. Had she done that? No, it wasn't me. It was the witch's fault for…summoning me? Why would anyone want her? She wasn't one of the big three's kids. Wouldn't Percy or Thalia have been better? Hell, even Annabeth was better than she was. Aella gripped her knife tighter, then took a step forward, then another towards the woman.

"Those guys think you're a demon—you're just another monster, if you ask me, only you aren't even great enough to get some epic name like 'Kampê' or Echidna. You're just some other stinking monster and you're in my way."

She threw herself forward, much to the surprise of the two men. The woman had seen it coming. She grabbed Aella's wrist before the knife could come down, chuckling at Aella.

"Really? I can't see why you were the one who came through that portal. No…I can't see...but I can smell why." Something changed in the demon's eyes, a look of uncertainty, "You're not human…" She said it quietly, squeezing Aella's wrist tight, trying to get her to drop the knife.

Aella cried out. The woman was stronger than she looked. Aella kicked at her, trying to break free.

"I have to admit though, I'd hoped for something a little...better. There were brighter lights, but this witch's inexperience hindered me."

The demon suddenly flinched as Sam began chanting in Latin.

Aella used her free hand to grab the woman's hair, pulling, still kicking as she was lifted from the ground. The next thing she knew, she was flying through the air as the woman threw her, charging towards Sam.

Sam reacted faster than Aella would have expected given his size. He jumped out of the way and shot at the demon, although the bullets did nothing to stop her. Aella forced herself to get to her feet. She was still clutching her knife. She's a monster...so this should work.

With a shout of defiance, Aella charged. Her knife sank into the woman's back with a sickening smack. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the demon screamed, throwing her head back as black smoke oozed from her wound, dissipating into nothing. Then, it was over. The woman slumped forward. Sam caught her, cradling her in his arms. His eyes were wide, face pale as he stared at the knife in Aella's still outstretched hand to the ragged woman's unblemished back.

The woman was still alive.


	3. Chapter 3

Aella trembled, the knife shaking in her hand. The woman was alive. Aella couldn't believe it herself. Her own weapon hadn't left a mark, but the demon had said she was "broken". However, Aella could see from the shaky rise and fall of her back that she was clearly alive. She tried to put on a small smile, but it ended up looking more like a grimace as she took in the shock on the two men's faces.

"I only have one head still, right? 'Cause the way you're looking at me, I'm starting to wonder."

"She's not dead?" Dean asked, hopping over on one leg.

Something in his tone frightened her and she spoke honestly, "Of course not. It's celestial bronze. It doesn't hurt mortals—only monsters."

"Your arrows sure worked 'mortals'," Dean mumbled, settling his weight onto an old box.

"Those are just normal bronze," Aella said, "It's too expensive to get a set of celestial bronze arrows."

"You say mortals as if you're used to dealing with something else," Sam remarked as he checked the woman's pulse.

"Is she going to live? Really?" Aella asked quickly, changing the subject.

"If we get her to a hospital in time, I think so. We have to hurry though."

"And what about the brat?" Dean asked, nodding to Aella.

Aella sheathed her knife back into her boot. She walked over to where she'd dropped her bow earlier. She noticed that her ankle throbbed slightly with each step, sending a shock up her leg. That woman had a hard grip.

"This brat," Aella snapped back, "Has a name. I already told you."

Sam scooped up the unconscious woman, glancing towards Dean, "We can figure out what to do with Aella, after we get to the hospital."

"Oh no! That brat is not going in Baby."

Aella arched an eyebrow.

"He means his car." Sam said slowly, narrowing his eyes at Dean in a 'really' sort of way.

"Look, I can take care of myself. I'm presumably miles from home or hallucinating, so I'd like to figure that out, thanks."

"You were part of a demon deal. Sorry kid, you're staying with us."

Aella wasn't sure what to make of that. A demon deal? What exactly did that mean? She assumed it had something to do with what the demon possessing the woman had said. From what she had gathered, the witch had summoned her for a purpose, though whatever purpose it was seemed to match the demon's. From the sound of it, the demon wasn't working alone either. She couldn't quite piece together though why anyone would want her. The demon had made it sound like summoning her was an accident. If that was the case, what had the demon been aiming for?

"What if I don't want to stay with you?" Aella asked, looking at the men.

"We don't have time to argue this. This woman is dying!" Sam reminded her.

Aella looked towards the woman and gave a small nod. Turning on heel, she headed up the steps, forcing herself not to look back. No words were said, but she had a feeling that glances were exchanged and gestures made between the two men.

As she came to the main room she glanced around and saw that their earlier words at least were the truth. The house looked as though it had been abandoned since the 70s. Tacky wallpaper straight out of That 70s Show peeled from the walls. Old glasses and flower painted plates were still laid out on a nearby table, as though the family had been forced to leave in a rush. On the wooden floor, she saw that the dust had been disturbed by multiple sets of footprints, her own now added to the maze.

Sam came up the steps a few moments later and led the way outside. She glanced around, expecting either an extremely sketch beaten up old car or police cruiser. She saw neither. Instead, she saw a dark screaming metal deathtrap of a car. She loved it. I could see Apollo pulling the sun in one of those, she thought with a smirk.

"Backseat. You get in first. I'll pass her to you then," Sam instructed, opening the door with one hand.

Aella scooted into the car and then waited for him to pass the woman over. She rested the woman's head on her lap, looking down at her sadly. She wished there was more she could do. Even though the woman was a witch, presumably with her own agenda, it seemed like she'd been manipulated into this. She looked quite young, too.

As soon as Sam left to go get Dean, Aella shut her eyes and whispered, "Father, hear me out. This girl needs help so...let me suddenly conveniently discover my healing powers?"

She didn't feel any sort of divine mojo, nor did she see any sudden bright lights, but she figured she would give it a try anyway. She held her palm over the woman and concentrated. All she managed to do though was look silly. Aella put her hand down, scowling out the window. She really was worthless, wasn't she? Maybe that was why they were able to summon her through. She gave the least resistance.

The two men came out of the house together, the taller one awkwardly supporting the shorter man. Once they'd both settled into the car, Sam turned the key in the ignition, setting the car to 'purr' mode. As the car sprung to life, so did the radio. Like any proper child of Apollo, Aella knew good music.

"Working Man," Aella stated simply.

"Oh, like you know Rush?" Dean snapped, clearly irritable from the arrow still in his leg.

Aella shrugged, "We play this song when we have to clean the cabin for inspection. Always seemed to fit."

"Cabin? Like a camp cabin?"

"No, like Lincoln's cabin."

Was Aella imagining it, or was that a smirk? Well, it was progress. She'd come to the conclusion that her best bet right now was to stay with these guys, at least until it looked like they were more trouble than they were worth. They could see through the mist, it seemed, so that had to count for something. How else would they have known that woman had a monster in her? Chills ran down her spine at the thought. Monsters taking over mortals? She'd never heard of one like that. I'll Iris message Chiron about it as soon as I can.

She still had a lot of questions about them though. Why had they posed as police? Had they been trying to warp the mist earlier to convince her as if she were a regular mortal? If that was the case, she figured it was possible they were demigods too, or perhaps the children of demigods. They would have known about the bronze though if they were. In the end, it made no sense.

"How's she doing?" Sam asked, looking back in the mirror at her.

"Breathing still, but it's shallow."

Sam pressed the speed limit a bit more. Dean informed her they were about twenty minutes from the hospital. They just had to hope that the woman would hold on until then.

As soon as they pulled into the U-bend of the Emergency drop off doctors and nurses rushed out to help aid the woman. After a nurse saw Dean's knee, she quickly instructed for a wheelchair to be brought over for him and soon he was wheeled off as well. A volunteer came out as Dean was rolled away and informed Sam of which parking garage to use. Aella and him piled back into the car and began heading to the indicated lot.

"So if you're not cops or whatever, then what are you? I mean, cops don't fight demons or witches and that looked too real to be a LARP session."

"We're called hunters. We hunt down monsters and take care of them."

"Hunters, huh? Seems like a really...simple name for someone who goes after that sort of thing. Why not exorcists or Hellsing...ers?"

"Well, there's more than just demons and witches. You named off a few earlier, didn't you? Greek monsters. We don't get a lot of those in North America, but they're in the book."

They pulled into the gold garage and started to drive up the numerous ramps.

"So you can see what they are? That they're not human or whatever they disguise themselves as?"

"Well…yeah. Everyone can if they actually look. To be honest, though, most look human."

Sam pulled into a spot on the third level, turning off the car. He looked over at Aella, eyes narrowing slightly. He looked like he wanted to ask something, then decided against it, moving to open his door instead. Aella got out as well. She kept her bow in her hand, gripping the wood tight. Sam walked around to the trunk and opened it, gesturing for her to come over.

"Leave the bow here. You can keep the knife as long as your jeans hide it, but that bow is way too conspicuous."

"Shouldn't the mist hide it?"

Sam acted as though he hadn't heard her. Coming over, she saw that the trunk held enough weapons to make any GI Joe envious. She arched her eyebrow, glancing out of the corner of her eye at Sam before lightly setting her bow inside. Just who was she getting herself involved with?

* * *

It didn't take long for Aella and Sam to make their way up to the main lobby of the ER, where a nurse at the desk promptly escorted them Dean's examination room. They didn't get much of a chance to speak before a doctor came in, took one look at the broken off arrow, and sent them back to the ER proper.

Dean was rolled to a bed while Aella and Sam were given a brief update (as much as the doctor's could tell them about her—they weren't family of hers after all) on the witch they had brought in. According to the doctor, she had suffered severe blunt force trauma similar to what they saw from fall victims, especially those from extreme heights. Sam told the doctor with as earnest a face as he could that they'd found the woman lying on the side of the road on the way to the ER for "their" brother.

The doctor was skeptical for obvious reasons, but Aella noted with some surprise that Sam's puppy dog eyes seemed to be convincing him. After a few more moments of idle chat, the doctor excuse himself to go check on another patient.

The two headed silently back to Dean, who gave them an update of his own. The arrow hadn't penetrated too deeply and had avoided doing major damage to any nerves. He seemed to be in a better mood now that he had some pain medicine in his system and even waved good-naturedly as Aella and Sam came into the room.

"Well if it isn't the brat who shot me!" he said in a rather chipper voice, before looking to Sam, "I told them that we'd been screwing around with our sister's bow in the backyard and we had an accident."

"Did they run your ID yet?" Sam asked, crossing his arms.

"Dude, they haven't even come back to this room since the nurse set me all up."

Aella listened silently, noting that they seemed far too used to 'telling stories'. Who talks about running IDs anyway? Aella wondered to herself, That's like something straight out of the Bourne movies. Her ankle gave an annoying throb. She bent down to rub it briefly, still deep in thought.

Were hunters mortals with the ability to see through the Mist who took it upon themselves to fight monsters? She'd never heard of anything like that. Surely such mortals would be known to Camp Half-Blood? It was plausible that they were legacies— children to demigods, but that seemed unlikely from the way they reacted to her mention of the Mist before. Either way, none of that explained the demon, as they called the woman or rather the smoke thing that had been in her. The scene kept replaying in her mind; the smoke billowing from the woman's back where her knife had gone in, like some dark serpent.

"You ok, kid?"

Aella looked up. The two were watching her curiously, one more distrustful than the other.

"Yeah, just…thinking. Trying to figure this all out in my version of reality and it's not working. I've never seen anything like that 'demon', as you called it and trust me, I've seen some shit."

"So what's your story, kid? You said earlier that you were teleported or something to that basement?" Sam asked, his brow furrowing in what might have been either curiosity or concern.

"I was at Camp, minding my own business like I usually do, when—" she stopped, thinking back, "I think I heard that demon and the woman speaking. I heard voices and…yes, that must be it. Anyway, I saw red, then poof, I was in the basement and I heard you two walking around upstairs. You know the rest."

The two exchanged glances, "That doesn't explain anything. Like, why did you have a bow and a knife with you?"

Aella rolled her eyes, twisting her own story, "I was at camp. Didn't you two ever go to summer camp?"

"Not exactly…" Sam said slowly, "That doesn't explain a few things though. Still, you seemed pretty calm with everything happening."

"And you're used to fighting," Dean added, his green eyes narrowing as he studied her.

It wasn't a question and there was no denying that. Anyone who was a warrior recognized another. There was something about the way a fighter moved. Aella thought for a moment. Something in the back of her mind warned her against saying that she was a demigod. The way Sam had talked about hunters "taking care" of monsters earlier had made her consider that in their minds, she might fall into that category.

"My dad taught me. Listening to you guys, I'm starting to wonder if maybe he's a...hunter you called it? I mean, he taught me about monsters." She looked at Sam, hoping he would play into her story.

"Where is your dad?"

Aella gave a mild shrug, "Dunno. He comes and goes a lot. Been a long time since I last saw him."

"Sounds like a hunter," Sam mused, looking to Dean.

"The kid shot me and you want me to believe her?" Dean ran a hand through his close-cut hair, scowling, "Damn it though, it makes sense though."

"What's your dad's name, Aella? We might know him. We can call him up and—"

"He doesn't exactly have a phone. He was worried the signal would attract monsters. He's gone anyway." She shrugged at the last bit, seemingly unbothered.

"Well you're pretty damn cold about your dad."

"It's not like he was there much."

The last words hung in the air between them, an unspoken understanding passing through the group. It wasn't a lie. Apollo was always busy, charioting the sun around. Hell, he'd been too busy to claim her until two years after she came to camp and even then it hadn't felt like a true claiming. He'd come to her one night when she'd finally decided that she'd had enough and planned to run away back home. His exact words haunted her, reminding her of just how unimpressive she was. He'd simply met her on the beach before the sun needed to rise and told her, "You can stay in my cabin." Then he'd left without a word. No fancy lights, no special claiming at the fire. Just those words. She hadn't spoken to him since and that had been a few years ago.

Two years she'd waited and prayed. There were some nights when she wished that Apollo wasn't her father. Hermes had been kind to her. He'd never spoken to her, but he'd allowed her to stay in his cabin just like all the other unclaimed children. Even now she burned her offerings to him, not Apollo.

The doctor came back in a moment later, sending Aella and Sam out of the room. The two went to a vending machine, bought some candy, and then went to sit in the waiting room.

"Sorry I shot your friend," Aella said after popping two green M&Ms into her mouth solemnly.

"It's not the first time he's been shot."

"So...what's going to happen now to me?" she asked after a long pause, looking down towards her boots, "I don't even know what state I'm in and since dad's out of reach there's only my mom, but she's away too."

"We need to figure out why a demon deal ended up summoning you in particular. If Dean agrees, I think you should stay with us for a bit, at least until we figure it out. Or if he doesn't, we'll send you to stay with our friend Bobby. He can keep you safe and probably figure it out faster than we can."

"I'm guessing I have no choice in the matter?"

Sam didn't answer. Aella ate a few more M&Ms, sucking on them until the outer coating was gone, leaving only the chocolate to slowly melt in her mouth.

"The demon called you two 'Winchesters', like she knew you."

"Dean and I are brothers," Sam said simply as if that answered her question.

"Winchester," Aella tasted the name for a moment, then laughed, "Like the gun. Funny. Ironic, even. So, why'd she know you two? Are you guys on a last name basis? Sorta 'Malfoy' and 'Potter' relationship?"

"Nah, she was just some random demon. Dean and I have a bit of a reputation. It's not always a good thing."

Great. More famous people. She could never escape her fate, it seemed. Either her fellow demigods, or even mortals outshined her now. Still, at least she was part of something this time and not just another hired archer sitting in the back.

"We'll get you back to your family as soon as we figure this all out, ok? We wouldn't want them to worry longer than they need to, but it wouldn't be safe for them if you went back right now."

"That's how it usually is…"

"What do you mean by that?"

Aella wondered how much she could say without giving herself away. She took a deep breath, staring down at the rather dirty tile floor.

"The thing is...I always seem to bring trouble. Just enough trouble for my mom to send me away with...with my dad, but not so much trouble that I'm useful, so he sends me to camp. I'm not sure if that makes any sense."

Judging by Sam's expression, it didn't, but he tried to help anyway, "Your mom probably thinks you're safer with your dad. I'm not sure what sort of 'trouble' you mean, but if it's anything like this, I can see why. Does stuff like this normally happen to you?"

"You mean getting teleported across a few state boundaries into a basement for some weird bet? Nope. Usually, it just consists of monsters coming after me. I must smell good to them or something. Maybe I should lay off the Bath and Body Works."

Sam smirked, patting her lightly on the back, "If there's something really drawing monsters to you, Bobby can figure it out."

Aella was just finishing her candy when a nurse came out, informing them that Dean would be fine to leave shortly and that the doctor had come in to check everything. According to Sam, that was good news. They needed to leave the town as soon as possible thanks to the demon situation. Aella had a feeling she was in for a long drive and an even longer night.


	4. Chapter 4

Aella sat in the back of the Impala, her brow slightly furrowed as they started the drive to the Winchester's next job. Sam had called Bobby after Dean had made it abundantly clear he still didn't trust Aella after the apparent demon deal and that he didn't want her to travel with them. However, Bobby didn't want some 'snot nosed brat' staying with him either, though he did promise to try and do some research into the incident. That left Aella stuck in the back seat in a state of perpetual awkward silence. Even though Sam was driving (due to Dean's bandaged knee), it had been Dean who turned on the tape player, which currently played Hendrix. Perhaps he'd hoped it would drown out the silence between them, but unfortunately, it continued...for three hours.

Aella fell asleep at some point, but for the first time since the start of her demigod life, she had no strange dreams of other places. When she slept she only saw darkness. Upon waking, she had to assure herself that she was really awake. Frankly, she hadn't even recalled falling asleep, but she knew that had to be the case. Why didn't I dream though? she wondered, biting her lower lip and looking out the window. I was hoping I would see camp, or at least some vision to help me figure everything out. I guess not.

Night had fallen during her slumber. There were no stars in the sky, prompting her to assume they were near a larger town or city. Peering out at the exit signs though, she concluded they were still at least an hour if not more from their destination.

"Oh, you're awake. We grabbed some McDonalds while you were sleeping."

Dean smirked at her and passed back a Happy Meal.

"You're joking, right?"

Dean shrugged and continued, "The next job is supposed to be a simple one. It looks like a shifter, so the biggest thing to avoid is letting them snatch your form. A.k.a., kill the bastard first."

"Kill?" Aella asked quietly, frowning.

"Yup. Silver blade to the heart." Dean said simply.

"You mean that sends them back to Tartarus?"

Sam looked back in the rearview mirror, "It just…kills them."

Aella shifted uncertainly, looking out the window. Monsters went back to Tartarus when they died, but the way the Winchesters spoke about it, it was as if the creature—this shifter, would just die, never to return. Imagine how peaceful life would be if the monsters did stay down. No doubt it was just a lack of knowledge on the part of the Winchesters.

"Anyway, your job is to stay out of the way. You'll be waiting in the car. If you touch anything though, I swear I'll throw you right back to the witch."

"You don't think she'll make any more deals, do you?" Aella asked.

"I doubt it, but ten years time they'll be coming to collect her soul."

She caught a glimpse shared between the two men. She could tell they had just had some sort of silent conversation and had obviously come to the same consensus.

"They? What do you mean by that?"

"Well," Sam began slowly, "When a demon does something for you- say, makes you rich or whatever your wish is, they make a contract that in ten years time they can take your soul. Or at least those are the standard terms."

"They can do that? I thought that only Hades and Thanatos were able to handle souls? Or I suppose the ferryman too."

"What the hell are you talking about? Hades isn't in charge of anything. Who's this Thanatos guy?"

"He's not really talked about much," Sam said, "I guess you could say that he's Death itself. He's the son of Nyx and Erebos; Night and Darkness. As far as I know, he was done off by a hunter long before our time. Well, either that or maybe he just sort of became a grim reaper."

Something troubled Aella about the way they spoke. They acted as though the Gods were real just as a demigod would, but they treated them as if they weren't quite Gods. Gods can't die...so how could a hunter have killed Thanatos? Obviously, she had been right about her previous assumption. The Winchesters just didn't understand about Tartarus.

"So let me get this straight. You make a wish upon a demon who acts like some twisted fairy godmother and then after everything seems great midnight strikes ten years later and you die?"

"It's worse than dying," Dean murmured, "You're taken to Hell."

He must mean the Fields of Punishment. Aella was slowly starting to piece together how their view of the world fit into her own.

"You know a lot about mythology, Aella. Did your dad teach you?"

"How can he teach me when he's not around?"

Dean turned down the volume of the music a bit, "He goes on trips a lot?"

"You...could say that. He sort of walked out on my mom. I didn't see him again until I was twelve."

"That's rough, kid."

Aella murmured her agreement and started to open her Happy Meal. The burger was cold and so were the fries, but she hadn't eaten anything since the M&Ms back at the hospital.

"We'll get to town in about ten minutes."

She nodded and went back to eating. She had just finished her fries when the Impala rolled up to a motel. Dean waited in the car with Aella while Sam went inside to book a room for them. Part of her was a little concerned that she would be rooming with two men she had only met earlier that day, but she reasoned that there was a silent understanding between them right now. They had a mission. Besides, she was a demigod. Even if she didn't have flashy powers, she still had some things going for her.

Sam came out about ten minutes later with the keys. He went to help Dean out, but the shorter man got up on his own. He had a slight limp, but for the most part seemed tolerant of his wound.

As Aella went to stand she felt a searing pain on her ankle that made her double over in pain, her vision flashing white.

Sam was instantly by her side, "Aella, what's wrong?"

She felt as if her ankle was on fire. Pulling back the cuff of her jeans and unlacing her boot to expose the skin, she saw that the entire area was red and swollen as if she had been burned. At the center of the inflamed area was a series of symbols.

The top one appeared to look like an arch, while underneath of it was a symbol that looked like the sign for 'female', but with a square instead of a circle.

"W-what?" she gasped before wincing once more.

"You don't have a tattoo, do you?"

She shook her head, staring down at the symbols that seemed to be burned into her skin, "Sam...is this normally what happens when a possessed human grabs you?"

He didn't answer.

* * *

Sam carried her into the room and sat her down on the bed. Normally she would have protested to such handling, but she didn't trust herself to put weight on her ankle. She rolled up the hem of her jeans so Sam could take a picture of the marks to send to Bobby. It wasn't long after he sent the photos that Bobby called. Sam quietly excused himself and went outside to talk in private. Aella wondered why he felt the need to speak alone with Bobby. What did he not want her to overhear?

Dean sat sulking on the opposite bed, studying her with heavy eyes. Aella shifted uncomfortably, wishing he would look away.

"You really don't know what happened, do you?" Dean finally said.

"I wish I did, but what I said was true. I was in camp and suddenly I was in the basement."

Dean took out his cell phone and flipped it open, passing it to her, "Here, I know you said you can't talk to your mom and your dad's out of the picture, but this camp, they're probably worried about you since you were in their care, right?"

Aella took the phone, frowning slightly. The camp did have a phone that was meant for emergencies only. This qualified as an emergency. Using the phone though could possible summon every monster without a five-mile radius to her. Was it worth the risk?

"Do you not know the number?"

"I thought I did, but I forgot it. I only know the area code. It's in New York."

"You were in New York? What, New York City?"

"Have you seen a camp around there? No, I was on Long Island. It doesn't matter though. The camp isn't really tech savvy. Chances are no one would have answered the phone anyway."

Aella went to look out the window only to see that the curtains were drawn. She sighed, rubbing her ankle. She wanted to be doing something. She didn't want to simply be sitting around waiting to be helped. A thought occurred to her. Did she have a drachma? Aella started going through her pockets. In her hoodie pocket, she felt the familiar cool metal, slightly warmed by her body heat.

Aella got to her feet and half limped, half hopped towards the bathroom.

"Where are you going?"

Aella gave him a look and tossed back the phone, "Do I really have to explain?"

Dean gave her a small smirk and waved her off.

As soon as Aella was in the bathroom she let out a small sigh of relief. Now all she had to do was make a rainbow. Aella fished through her pockets once more and pulled out a prism. Her mother had given it to her for her fourteenth birthday. Aella hadn't really thought about it being useful, but she'd kept it with her because of the sentiment (plus it was pretty to look at). Now Aella realized just how thoughtful the gift had been. Aella hoped it would work as well as a proper rainbow with water. She held the prism, angling it so it caught the light and made a very tiny rainbow.

Taking out her drachma, Aella said, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering."

Aella tossed the coin at the rainbow. She half expected it to just bounce off the wall. Instead, it was absorbed into the rainbow just as it always was. A soft, ethereal voice filled the bathroom.

"My, my…it has been many years since someone asked me for a favor. And you've done it properly too. Though, I do not think I am the one you intended to ask. No, I see something different in your mind."

Briefly, the face of a woman grew into existence within the shower. Her features were delicate, familiar even, but not recognizable as the Iris she knew.

"Please, I need to contact Chiron, director of activities at Camp Half-blood. It's urgent."

The face tilted slightly, as if questioning her, "Camp Half-blood? There hasn't been one since the Civil War. Hunters wiped it out after they happened upon its location."

"That's…not right. I was just there."

"Indeed you were." The woman cooed, "Don't worry, I know what you seek. I can sense it, I think…a link."

Her face flickered, then she was gone. The image was replaced by a familiar place for Aella. Home. She could see the big house, and at the table, looking over some scrolls was,

"Chiron!" she whisper-shouted. She would have thrown herself at the image if she could have.

Chiron looked up, blinking in disbelief, "Aella? But that's not possible."

"Chiron, it's me! What happened? One minute I was at camp and then I ended up somewhere in Florida. Please tell me you know what's going on?"

He continued to stare though as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Chiron?"

Chiron suddenly spoke in an urgent tone, the one that he usually reserved for Annabeth or Percy, "Aella, listen to me. Something has gone terribly wrong. I think it would be unwise for me to tell you everything at the moment, but I can explain a few—"

Static obscured the message.

"Chiron?"

"—there are things trying to come—"

The message jumped again and then faded.

Aella felt her throat catch. She'd never seen Chiron look so serious when speaking to her. Normally he was gentle, giving her a soft smile and shooing her off to her activities or encouraging her to try something again. The ominous message had done the opposite of comforting her. It frightened her. Aella wrapped her arms around herself. She wouldn't cry.

"Aella, you ok in there? You've kinda ah...been in there a while."

Taking a deep breath she hopped over to the door and opened it, "Yeah I just needed a moment alone. It's still a lot to take in."

Dean frowned at her, green eyes a little sad, "I can understand. Why don't you get some sleep? There's no point in worrying right now. Bobby probably won't find anything until tomorrow morning."

Aella hopped over to the bed and flopped onto it, her blonde hair haloing around her head on the bedspread. She'd barely shut her eyes when the door opened and Sam walked in.

He looked over briefly at her, then to Dean, "We've got a problem."

"Yeah, it's laying on the bed right there."

"And we were getting along so much better," Aella sighed.

"We're going to have to skip the shifter. A pair of hunters were killed by a monster and Bobby's taken it personally."

Dean stood up, scowling, "Who was it?"

"McCoy and Roy. We never met them, but they've sent information Bobby's way a lot. He's known them for years."

The two men looked grim. Sam went over and sat down on the pullout couch, running a hand through his hair.

"Killed by what exactly?" Aella piped in after a moment.

"The God Apollo."


	5. An Update on the Hiatus

It's been a long time, hasn't it? Well, I finally have an update for y'all.

Updates are incoming for this story, as well as rewrites of early chapters. That being said, I don't know if I will be posting them here or on Archive of Our Own. I've been using that site a lot more since working on my Overwatch/HP fanfiction and I personally prefer the interface better.

It's been a long time since I started this fanfic back in 2014 and I've grown a lot since this story began. I've graduated college, started grad school, and worked as a professional writer since this all began. For a while, I was done with this fic. I'd started to get some negative reviews and they were really starting to get under my skin. I started to feel like I wasn't in love with the story anymore, and debated whether or not I should bother continuing since it seemed like folks didn't really like it either.

But here's the thing. I haven't updated this story in how long and I -still- get emails about people subscribing. So how can I not update? I can't promise that the updates will be regular, and since I'm going back and editing there may be some changes to the story itself to make it better.

Thank you all for continuing to stay with me through this fanfiction. It really has been a crazy journey.


	6. Chapter 5 - RepostUpdated

The trio spent the night at the motel. Aella found herself unable to sleep, however, in spite her exhaustion. She kept tossing and turning in the bed until finally she groaned and sat up. Checking that the other two were still asleep, she carefully pushed back the covers and swung her legs out of bed. Her ankle was swollen now and even in the dark she could see the markings. They almost seemed to glow with their own light, a shimmering yellow. Rather than dwelling on it though she carefully stood up, testing her weight on the limb. Though painful, it was able to hold her.

Looking once more to ensure that the Winchesters were both, in fact, asleep, Aella tiptoed to the door and quietly undid the deadbolt before slipping out into the night.

It was warmer here than at camp. It felt more like a fall night than a late spring evening. She shivered slightly and leaned against the wall, looking out at the silent parking lot. The t-shirt that Sam had given her worked perfectly as a nightdress, but it was a little too thin to be any protection against the night, not that she was thinking of going anywhere. The men had locked both her bow and knife in the car before they'd gone to sleep and unfortunately she wasn't a master at lock picking like the Hermes kids. Besides, at the moment she had nowhere she could go, not in her condition.

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to come out," came a voice from beside her.

Aella jumped and pivoted, bringing her fists up, "Who's there?"

A woman was leaning casually on the building next to where she had been. She had dark hair and eyes and for the most part, seemed unfazed by Aella's reaction. She let out a small sigh before looking up at the sky as if she were simply counting the stars.

"I'll admit, I don't quite know what to make of you. I had to wait for you to leave though before we could have a chat. Those boys are always so cautious and even I can't cross a salt line."

Aella didn't lower her fists, "I asked you a question."

"Relax. I'm a friend of Sam's. Dean's not too fond of me, but that can't be helped. I'm Ruby."

Ruby looked over at Aella, her eyes flashing over completely black for a moment before returning to normal.

"You're a demon!" Aella gasped, backing up, "How did that thing go? Crux sancta sit mihi-"

Ruby hissed and with surprising speed lashed out, covering Aella's mouth with her palm, "Can you not? I happen to like this meat suit and without me, this woman would be dead anyway. Her soul left a long time before I possessed the body. Now, I'm going to let go. Can you stand there calmly after I do so so we can have a nice conversation? There are things that I need to know and things you need to know."

Aella gave a small nod and Ruby removed her hand. Aella licked her lips as if to remove the woman's taint from her mouth.

"You said you're a friend of Sam's, but I've seen how they react to demons."

Ruby gave a small shrug, "I'm a bit of an exception. I've helped them out in some tight spots. Not everyone wants to see the end of the world."

"End of the world?" Aella felt her heart skip a beat, "Are you talking about Chronos?"

"That weakling?" Ruby laughed, "He's busy with some woman back in the forties I think. He's too human to be a proper God."

"Titan." Aella automatically corrected.

Ruby waved her off, "Whatever. I'm talking about Lucifer. You know, the devil?"

"But he's not real…"

Aella slid down onto the concrete as her ankle gave way finally. Ruby frowned slightly and for a moment, Aella thought she saw concern in the woman's eyes, or perhaps it was curiosity. It was difficult to read her expressions, even though she seemed emotive.

"They said you were marked," Ruby said quietly as she knelt down beside Aella, "Can I take a look?"

Aella shook her head, "Not until you explain what you're talking about."

"You humans are always so annoying!"

Ruby sat down beside her, crossing her legs. Together, the two of them looked rather normal; perhaps two sisters bonding during a family trip. The tension in the air between them, however, was palpable. Aella wished she had some weapon on her or some skill like her siblings, but she was completely defenseless.

As if sensing the cause of her unease, Ruby took out a knife and set it out of reach of both of them, then turned to Aella.

"Let's stop playing games. I know what you are. I can smell it. You're not entirely human. You stink of Olympian. They've had a lot of demigods over the centuries, but not so much in recent times. You surprise me."

Aella didn't look away, no matter how much she wanted to.

"I'm wondering though why you're different. Most other demigods don't last long. They start wanting more and usually fall to the godly blood in them. You seem normal enough though. I'm guessing you've never eaten or murdered a human? Wanted a sacrifice in your name?"

"What? Why would I do that? Why would anyone do that?"

Ruby stretched, yawning as she did, "Not a lot of people worship the pagan gods anymore, so they have to get their power from somewhere. Sacrifices, murders, ingesting humans, you get the idea."

"But no one does that! The gods still thrive even today. I mean, thrive might be a bit of a stretch, I know Mr. D isn't too happy with his situation, but they don't eat people or demand sacrifices."

"Mr. D?"

"Dionysus. He's the counselor at…" Aella trailed off.

She was saying too much. As it was though, Ruby's eyes widened from her little slip. The shock was evident on her face as she asked,

"You don't mean he's a counselor at Camp Half-Blood? The camp was wiped out years ago by hunters."

"You're nuts. It's not wiped out. You're just trying to get me to tell you about it for whatever plan you and your guys have going on. That other demon mentioned something about it."

"It was located on Long Island, right?"

Aella stared at her, "How did you-?"

"Because when I smelled you that was the first place I went to look. I wanted to see if they reestablished the camp. It was still in ruins though."

Aella bit her lower lip, feeling as though she were falling. The camp couldn't have been destroyed. She'd just spoken with Chiron a few hours ago. The Iris message had been so strange though and the Iris she had seen was not the one she knew.

"You said the other demon mentioned something about a plan? Look, you need to tell me everything that happened."

Aella hesitated, still feeling shaken from Ruby's words.

The door suddenly opened and bed-headed Sam peered out blearily, gun in hand. As he saw Ruby though a look of surprise and horror crossed his face.

"Ruby, what are you doing here? If Dean sees you-"

"Relax, I'm about to leave. I just needed to talk to the girl here. Although if you need—"

"Aella? Why did you need to talk to her?" Sam came outside, shutting the door behind him, "And what are you doing out here, Aella?"

"So that's her name," Ruby mused before going on, "I heard about what happened, but I wanted to learn about it myself. She seems to be a key part of whatever's going on. She's pretty shaken up though by what happened, so why don't you tell me?"

Something about the change in her tone clued Aella in on the situation. She shuddered and gave them both a look of disgust before dragging herself to her feet once more. Clearly, they needed to get a room.

"Ruby, you won't mention anything about…you know…, right?" Aella arched an eyebrow, "It's...sort of personal."

"For now, I suppose."

She supposed that was the most she was going to get from the demon. Aella sighed and went back inside. She trusted that woman about as far as she could throw her. Still, she'd gotten some interesting information that she would have to contact Chiron about. A few different possibilities were starting to form in her mind as to what her situation was. None of them looked good.

She'd nearly made it to her bed when the marks on her ankle gave a fresh throb. She fell to her knees, a strange sensation overcoming her. She felt disconnected from her body. As she hit the ground there was the feeling of something shifting in her mind. It was not quite painful, but it overwhelmed her. She managed to crawl over to her bed, grasping at the covers. She tried to call out, but to her horror, she couldn't quite make the words. Soon, her world was fading to black.

* * *

"You should be careful of her you know. She's not what she seems."

Sam looked over at Ruby. Their relationship had changed a lot since Dean's soul had been taken and even more since Dean had returned. It was hard to know exactly what they were and even harder to lie to his brother about everything. Seeing her sitting on the curb beside him though with her concerned, intelligent brown eyes, it was easier to imagine that she was just some normal woman, not a demon wearing a human. She wasn't Jessica, but she understood him all the same and better still, he didn't have to worry about her.

"So you keep warning me," Sam said, slowly sitting down beside her, "What exactly is it about her that I shouldn't trust? She seems like a good kid. She reminds me a bit of Dean and me at that age to be honest."

"She probably is a lot like you two, if I had to make a guess, but I'm not talking about her general behavior," Ruby met his eyes, "It's more her nature that I'm worried about. Just be careful, all right? You've already seen she doesn't hesitate to shoot first and ask questions later."

"That's just how hunters are, even if they're just the kids of hunters."

"It's more than that, Sam. She's—"

Before the conversation could go further, however, there was a blinding flash of blue from behind the curtains of the motel room. Sam jumped to his feet, about to run inside, when Ruby grabbed his arm.

"Wait! Be careful. That thing on her ankle, it's connected to her soul and for some reason her meat suit is…not normal, even for what she is. It's less of a suit, more of a shell. I'd come help, but I think Dean's dealt with enough demons today."

Sam stared at her for a moment, opening his mouth to ask what she meant. Before he could inquire further though, Ruby was gone. Swearing softly, he ran into the room.

Dean was already up, holding an unconscious Aella in his arms as he dragged her up onto the bed. He paused when he saw Sam.

"Dude, I swear I didn't do it."

"What happened?" Sam asked, helping to set her on the bed.

She looked feverish, even at a glance. Her skin was pale and drops of sweat beaded her brow. She kept quivering every so often, flinching as if caught in some nightmare.

"I don't know. I was asleep and some flash woke me up. When I looked over I saw her on the floor."

Sam put a hand to her brow. She was burning up. He shook his head and went to their bags to try and find some Motrin. The last thing they needed was for some random minor to die in their care.

"Did she mention feeling sick before we went to bed?"

Sam shook his head, "No, she seemed upset, but not like this and I just saw her less than two minutes ago and she seemed fine."

Looking at her, he knew he would have to play his cards carefully. If what Ruby had said was true, they would have to be extremely careful if they didn't want to hurt Aella further...Or hurt them. Sam carefully sat down beside Aella and tugged down her sock a bit to get a better look at the marks. They glowed as if someone had stuck an LED under her skin. Dean swore loudly at the sight.

"That can't be normal."

"No kidding."

Out of impulse, he touched the marks lightly. Sam instantly jerked his hand back as he felt a surge of energy run through his being. It reminded him of when he was at his most powerful after consuming Ruby's blood. Unlike that power though, this one seemed to want to rip him apart. It was too pure. He recognized it, but for a moment couldn't place it. Then, he realized, and he had the perfect way to give Ruby's information to Dean.

"It's not hurting her body, it's hurting her soul," Sam managed, holding his head as he felt the surge fade, "The demon must have done something to...I don't know. It's killing her though."

"I take it this isn't something we can take her to the hospital for. Damn, why can't we ever just get a simple job that doesn't come with random baggage like glowing kids?" Dean looked at the mark closer, "Now that you mention it…those symbols look like when Cas grabbed me. Why's it hurting her though?"

"Call Bobby. This is going to be a rush order."

* * *

Aella found herself stuck in place like a camera, watching a scene play out before her. She recognized the room. She was in the Camp's infirmary. She'd only visited it a few times for personal reasons, but she'd helped out with bandaging and first aid before with the other Apollo kids. The caretaker, Argus, was carrying away a small tray, laden with a pitcher of what she knew was nectar. _'Was someone hurt? Maybe I wasn't the only one who had something happen!'_ She tried to turn, to see if anyone was in the sickbed, but her gaze was stuck, like a bad camera angle in a movie.

Two demigods came into the room after Argus left. It was March, so she was surprised to see the two of them here. Annabeth led the way, followed by a somewhat reluctant Percy. Why were the two most prolific demigods in here? Aella tried to ask, but just as her eyes were stuck, so too was her voice.

"I don't get it, what do you think you'll find that Chiron missed?" Percy asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"I'm not sure, but there has to be something. Chiron and Mr. D both agree it doesn't make sense. Nothing from our side tampered with reality according to them."

"Well if there's nothing from our end, why do you keep looking?"

"Maybe because I don't want to give up as easily as Mr. D. Maybe he's looking at it too simply," Annabeth snapped, "I know he doesn't care as long as he's done what Zeus has said. He didn't even know her name!"

"Annabeth, he doesn't know any of our names."

Annabeth went over to the bed, sitting down on a chair beside it. Aella didn't know what she hoped to find any more than Percy did.

"It just doesn't make sense." Annabeth would mutter every so often, scowling towards the bed.

After a few minutes, Chiron came rolling in, "I heard you two came back to camp. I'm sorry I was unable to greet you earlier."

"It's alright. You were talking with the big guys, right?"

"Indeed, Percy. They weren't pleased, as you can imagine."

"It's not like it was her fault though, was it?" Annabeth asked, rising finally from her seat.

"Not that we can tell, but you know how they like to point fingers, especially to ones like—" Thunder rang out at this proclamation, interrupting him. After a moment, he pressed on, "No doubt there are a number of forces at work here, but Percy, Annabeth, there was no reason for you two to come. You have school to focus on, don't you?"

"But Chiron, this is serious, isn't it?"

"It is, but you've done enough for now. I don't want to needlessly put either of you in danger when we have the situation handled."

"But it involves us, doesn't it? I have a theory, Chiron. I'm sure you've thought of it too, but-"

Chiron gave Annabeth the look he specifically reserved for her, the one that said, 'Yes, you are entirely right in your thoughts, but I cannot confirm them here, nor in front of the other campers unless you want to start a panic.'

Aella saw Annabeth's face pale, "But that doesn't mean—?"

"No, I think this was something that was both plan and coincidence; something that involved more than one party."

"Will one of you let me in?" Percy asked, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Later. I have to look up a few things to confirm it."

The vision began to fade as Annabeth stood up, heading towards the door. Percy remained behind, looking down at the bed before glancing to Chiron, saying something that she couldn't catch.

* * *

When Aella came to she realized she was moving. The familiar hum of a car rolled beneath her as she laid sprawled out on the back seats. Everything ached. She felt like the time she'd had a little too much nectar (apparently her ears had started to smoke then). She tried to sit up but groaned as she realized she couldn't move her limbs. She was bound.

"Hang on, it's all right. We're going for help now. We should be there within the hour."

That voice. She knew it.

"Sam?"

She forced her eyes open. It was still dark. She was in the back of the Impala once more, wrapped up tight in a blanket with a makeshift pillow made of a folded up flannel shirt beneath her head. She rolled over so she could see the streetlights passing through the window.

"You doing all right?" Dean asked from the driver's seat.

"I feel like someone dipped me in a hot tub for too long and then left me out in the snow."

"Well you've got a high enough fever to boil your brain, so that's not surprising. We managed to get it down with some medicine. Do you know how hard it is to give an unconscious person medicine?"

Aella squirmed out of the blanket and sat up, making a face as her world tilted, "How long was I out for?"

When neither of them answered, Aella repeated the question.

"It's been about twenty-four hours. We've been making pretty good time though."

"Twenty-four hours?" Aella gasped, "You couldn't wake me?"

"We tried to, but you wouldn't budge. We were starting to wonder if you'd make it."

"So who's Percy? And Annabeth?" Sam asked, looking back at her.

She stiffened. Her dream. How could she have forgotten about it? She had literally just woken up, but already it had begun to slip through her mind like sand in an hourglass.

"They're friends from camp," she said quietly, "Well, sort of. We've never really spoken. Annabeth showed me around the camp when I first came, but after that I mostly stuck to my cabin."

"And Chiron?" Dean asked innocently, but she caught the flash of his eye in the rearview mirror.

She licked her lips. They were dry and cracked from her fever.

"Chiron? I dunno. I think there's a business near the camp called Chiron. Why?"

Dean gave a shrug, "You mentioned that one too is all. Didn't know if it meant something important."

"So I was talking a lot in my sleep then?" she guessed.

"A few minutes ago, yeah."

They were turning into a lot now. The place looked like a car dumping ground, but it didn't come off as a junkyard. Aella sat up a little straighter, peering blearily around the property until she could see a small country looking house off in the distance. As they pulled up, the front light flickered on and the door opened, revealing a man who looked like..well, a hunter. He had a simple cap on with jeans, a t-shirt and a flannel (she was starting to notice that the folks around here really liked their flannels).

The man waited on the front porch for the group as they got out of the car. Sam helped Aella as they made their way up.

"Idjits! What took you?"

"Save the lecture for later, Bobby. Did you figure out what the marks are?"

Bobby gave a huff and opened the door, leading them inside, "Don't insult me. Of course I did."

He led the trio to a sitting room, which was filled with books and beer. Aella made a face at the sight, which didn't go unnoticed by Bobby.

"Tell me, brat, do you know anything about alchemy?"

"I'm guessing you're not talking about the Fullmetal Alchemist sort of alchemy?" The look he gave her quelled her a bit, "Erm, sir...no. I don't."

"I'm guessing you don't know anything about Latin than either?"

"Actually," she retorted as she eased herself onto a portion of the couch that was mostly cleared of papers, "I do. Why?"

"Well aren't you the little teacher's pet then? Tell me, what's 'Spiritus' then? One of the simpler ones."

"I wouldn't say it was simpler? It depends on what it's translated with. The word ending and context of the sentence matter. A direct translation would be...breath maybe?"

Bobby arched an eyebrow at her. Sam and Dean both seemed somewhat surprised as well.

"It also means just...well, the general spirit," Aella added slowly.

"Not bad. Now, what about Tartarus? That one's not Latin, but it's important."

Aella paled. She felt her heart skip a beat at the word and quickly looked away.

"Tartarus? That's the thing you kept talking about, Aella. It's like Hell isn't it?" Dean asked, voice a little hoarse.

"It's not really Hell," Aella said quietly, "Not in the Christian understanding, but...they say it's where the monsters live. Tartarus is below even the Underworld. Some say Tartarus is a being, not just a place."

"For our purposes, it's Hell," Bobby stated, then pointed to her ankle, "Pull down your sock."

Aella obeyed, revealing the two marks once more. They still continued to glow and now the skin around it seemed to strain.

"See that top mark there? Looks like a bridge? That's the alchemic symbol for 'Spiritus' or as you so aptly put it, 'breath or spirit'. That lower one isn't the symbol for female. See how it's a box instead of a circle? That's the alchemic symbol for 'Tartarus'."

Bobby pulled out a book, Medicinisch-Chymisch- und Alchemistisches Oraculum, and tossed it down on the table while Aella, Sam, and Dean processed the information.

"Now, I wondered what those marks could do when applied to a person? Why would a demon do that, huh?" he looked now to Sam and Dean, "She doesn't have an anti-possession mark, does she?"

"Not that we know of. We didn't exactly go looking for one."

"A what?"

"You got any tattoos?"

She shook her head, "Not unless you count this glowing monstrosity."

"This ain't a demon spell. It's a witch's spell, which makes sense since it was a witch and demon who summoned you from camp wasn't it? This is a spell to open a body that is resilient to possession by destroying its soul."

"Resilient? Is that even possible?" Sam asked, getting to his feet.

"There are a few texts that mention it. Usually, it's folks who've got mixed blood...or monsters."

"She's human though, isn't she?" Dean asked, reaching down subconsciously for his gun.

"I don't know, didn't you idjits do the tests?"

Monster? Mixed blood? Aella's heart skipped again. She quickly stated, "I'm human! Go on, test me!"

"Of course you are, I'm just surprised at these two for not checking. Anyway, in every instance where a monster was tapped with those marks, the monster blew up on contact. Mixed blood is a little trickier. Two accounts say that it worked on them."

"Mixed blood? What, like someone had a night with a kitsune or something?" Dean grumbled.

"Gods, usually. You know like Hercules and Perseus. Not many accounts of kids like that, but it happens. I'll give the history lesson later. Right now we need to take the mark off that kid before it does burn a hole in her soul."

"What happens if it does?"

"Best case, you're possessed by a demon. Worse?"

Bobby didn't have to finish. She already knew. She'd known it from the moment she'd felt the burning. She would die.

Aella took a deep breath, meeting his eyes, "What do we have to do?"


	7. Chapter 6 - RepostUpdated

It wasn't long before the house was bustling. Bobby sent the boys off to town to get supplies for the ritual. The sun was starting to rise, so Aella assumed it had to be somewhere near five, maybe six in the morning, meaning the shops would open soon. Most of the supplies they would need for the ritual were fairly easy to procure, thankfully, and most corner stores would supply them with what they needed.

As soon as the boys left the house, Bobby led her downstairs to the basement and into the strangest room Aella had ever seen (and that included the attic of the Big House). It reminded her of a bunker. The ground had a large ritualistic symbol on it. There was a bed off to one corner of the concrete room, but it hardly seemed cozy.

"What is that on the floor?" Aella asked, leaning on Bobby as he helped her inside.

She noticed his hesitation in answering her. He seemed to be waiting for something. After they crossed the threshold though he said,

"It's a panic room. You're not going to get a demon or ghost in here."

Aella peered around the room wide-eyed, "Um, I don't suppose this was a selling point for the house?"

She thought she saw the ghost of a smirk on his face.

"Nah, I put it in myself. It's come in use a few times."

Bobby dragged over a chair and indicated she should sit in it. As soon as she had he went and sat down with a groan onto the bed.

"So, the truth now, kid. You know as well as I do that you ain't completely human. If you were, they wouldn't have needed to put that mark on you."

Her stomach disappeared. Aella sat completely still, holding her breath. Bobby didn't seem too keen on attacking her though. He held his hands clasped in front of him, forearms resting on his knees as he leaned forward. From beneath the shade of his cap, his eyes seemed resigned, ringing with a small hint of concern.

"There's a reason I sent the boys off to get all that stuff. I have most of it here in the house. Dean ain't always sensitive to situations like this. He's a good kid, don't get me wrong. You'll never make a more loyal friend if you get the chance, but he doesn't see the shades of grey."

"You do though?" Aella asked cautiously, brows knit together in a small frown.

"I try to see the whole situation. Far as I can tell, you're not a threat. You're just what...thirteen? Fourteen?"

She nodded, "Fourteen."

"Exactly. And I think, if you were truly evil, you would have killed both those boys on the spot down there in that basement. They said you didn't shoot to kill though, and that your attack on that woman expelled the demon. I don't think those would be the actions of something evil."

Aella took a deep breath, glancing towards the door to make sure they were truly alone, "I'm a demigod. I'm the daughter of…"

She trailed off, looking back at Bobby. What was she doing? This was the man who was sending the Winchesters off to kill her father! If she told him that she was the daughter of Apollo he'd probably be a lot less lenient towards her.

"I'm guessing one of the 'bad' gods if you're hesitating," Bobby sighed and shook his head, "Whatever you do, don't tell the boys unless you have no other choice."

Bobby got to his feet and started to leave the room.

"I'm going to set up now like I told the boys I would. Once the ritual is over and you're all patched up, you should probably leave them and go your own way."

"I can't," Aella said instantly, "I don't know where to go." It all came spilling out, "I heard the camp was destroyed by hunters, but I dreamt about the camp so it can't be destroyed, but then when I tried to send a message it wasn't working right. I don't know what's going on!"

"Woah, woah, slow down there. Hey, there's no reason to cry," Bobby said gruffly, though not unkindly.

He came over and gently wiped her eyes. Aella hadn't even realized she was crying, but the moment the words spilled out she couldn't stop. She clung onto Bobby, burying her face in his shoulder. Maybe it was the way he reminded her of a country Chiron, but something about him allowed her to finally let go and feel all the fear she'd been bottling up.

"She was a demon, but she I don't think she was lying! I know there's something wrong with camp or me or...I don't know! I don't know anymore! You're telling me to leave the Winchesters, but if I do I, then what?"

"Hold up. A demon told you what? That this camp place was destroyed? What camp are you talking about?"

"There's a camp where demigods can go to learn how to defend themselves from monsters. It's the one place in the world where we're safe."

Bobby lightly pulled away, once more wiping her tears, "Monsters hunt demigods? I have to admit, I've never heard of such a thing happening."

Aella sniffed, "It's true. They hunt us. They do it for a lot of reasons, so we have to learn to fight back. Since I appeared in that house though I feel like everything's been turned upside down. The Winchesters make it sound like the Gods are people eating monsters and then that demon said about the camp being destroyed, and you? You say that I shouldn't say that I'm a demigod because the boys will think I'm a monster."

Bobby had a deep frown on his face as he stood up, crossing his arms. He watched Aella for a moment, putting together the pieces in his mind.

"You said you 'appeared' in the house? Just like that?"

She nodded.

"And you can't get in touch with your camp...which I'm guessing you were at right before that?"

She nodded once more, wiping her nose as she did.

Before Bobby could puzzle it any further though, they heard the front door open, followed by Dean's voice calling out that they were home.

"We're down in the panic room!" Bobby called back before focusing once more on Aella, "Remember, not a word to them, or anyone really. I'm starting to get a few theories about you and I don't like any of them." His face softened, "It'll be alright though. Just hang tight here while I set up the ritual. We'll figure this out one problem at a time."

It took Bobby a half hour to set up the ritual. A circle was made around Aella, made up of a mixture of salt, ground sage, and devil's bit petals. Around and inside the circle symbols were drawn, made out of the same powder.

Sitting at the center, Aella felt rather foolish. There was no way something like this would work. Salt and some flowers to bind someone's soul?

"Now then, this should seal her soul back up inside her vessel—that being her body."

Aella shifted awkwardly in the chair, "Will it hurt?"

Bobby shrugged, "No idea. Now buckle up and get ready."

Aella took a deep breath and gave a small nod, shutting her eyes. Bobby had walked her through the process while he was setting up, but it still didn't prepare her for what was to come. Bobby had Sam and Dean wait just outside the room.

Bobby stood outside of the ring, a bottle of holy water in one hand and a book with the incantation in the other. As soon as he was sure that Aella was ready, he began to chant. She immediately became lost in the Latin. He spoke it far too quickly for her to translate the words, even as a demigod, not that it mattered. After the first few lines, she felt the ritual starting to work.

Even through her shut eyes, she could see the glow of circle as the lines sprang to life. A bright blue light burned into the back of her eyes as Bobby's chanting grew louder and more passionate. She felt the sudden shift again as if she were fainting or trying to escape her own body.

Aella doubled over, gasping softly as her heart seemed to skip a beat. Something didn't seem right. She could feel the marks on her ankle burning, but it was lessening. It almost felt as if the flesh were trying to knit itself together. However, the strange stirring in her heart did not cease and for a moment, she found that she wasn't in the panic room, or even in a dream at Camp. She was in a dark space, surrounded by a warm, almost hot, mist. At the center, there was a spinning sphere, branded with the symbols she'd seen on her ankle.

Before she could get close enough to see it better though, she felt the mist envelop her, and the next thing she knew she was waking up on the cold, hard ground with Bobby, Sam, and Dean kneeling around her, checking her vital signs.

"I'm all right," she said, though it came out as 'Imallait'.

"You didn't say it'd be that much of a bang, Bobby," Dean said, looking a little pale.

"Oh well I'm sorry, I'll warn you that I have no idea about the outcome the next time I try a ritual that hasn't been done in a few hundred years."

Sam helped Aella get to her feet. She was surprised to find she no longer felt weak. In fact, she felt better than ever. She took a deep breath and stretched as she stood, then tested her weight on her ankle. No pain. Aella grinned and jumped up with a whoop.

"You're fantastic, Bobby! You'd make Asclepius proud."

"Who?" Dean and Sam asked instantly, while Bobby gave her a look of warning.

"He's the ah, God of Medicine. Mom used to read me a lot of books on mythology," Aella said with a shrug, "Sorry, I forgot you guys took that stuff seriously."

"Speaking of Gods, now that Aella's better we should go pick up that hunt for Apollo."

"Let's wait until tomorrow, Dean," Sam said, "While we're here with Bobby we can at least look into Aella's case a little more. I want to know how she was teleported here from...where did you say your camp was?"

"Somewhere up around New York," she said with a shrug, "I don't pay attention to directions."

"So she was teleported across multiple states…" Dean mused, "Well, I've got nothing. Only thing that I've heard that can do that are angel's and demons and we already know she's not a demon and no way in hell she's an angel."

"Well, there's a whole library upstairs," Bobby grumbled, "Why don't you two actually help me do some legwork for a change. Go on."

And so it was decided. For now, they'd help Bobby with the research. Tomorrow they would leave on the hunt for Apollo.


	8. Chapter 7 - RepostUpdated

As it turned out, they found nothing useful out about Aella's case, but it wasn't an afternoon ill spent. Aella was able to help with translating a number of texts in ancient Greek that Bobby had been stashing away for a rainy day. It hadn't taken much effort on her part; although after the first hour Sam had taken over with the writing (her dyslexia and terrible handwriting made her translations nearly illegible). While she dictated the translation, Sam typed it up onto his laptop.

It was a fairly dull afternoon for the most part, but once the evening came Aella found herself having a rather good time with the hunters. Bobby fired up an old circular charcoal grill in front of the house, where he cooked up some burgers and hot dogs for them. While he cooked, Dean worked on the Impala, cleaning the seats and doing other basic maintenance. Sam looked on quietly, sipping a beer as he did. Aella thought his eyes looked far away from the calm evening.

Aella went and sat down crisscross beside him, wrapping herself up in one of their overlarge flannels they'd left sitting around, "What's wrong, Sam?"

He didn't seem to hear her at first, but then quietly he said, "I'm thinking about something that _she_ said."

"She? Your friend that I met outside the motel?" Aella guessed.

Sam nodded, taking another sip of his beer, "Just some things she said."

"That's not all though, is it?" Aella peered up at him, "I know you don't know me well, but...if there's something wrong maybe I can help? I mean, I sort of owe you guys. I shot your brother and you thank me by saving my life."

Reaching down, Sam ruffled up her hair, "Hey, that's what we do. We save people."

"You didn't have to though…"

"Just because we don't have to doesn't mean we shouldn't."

He reminded Aella a bit of some of the older heroes around camp. There was weariness in his face that weighed him down the same way it did on the older demigods. It reminded her of how she'd seen Percy and Annabeth's faces after they came back from holding the weight of the sky. Sure, they had seemed happy to be home and even happier to be together again, but what they had gone through together had left them scarred beyond just the streaks of white in their hair.

"I don't know that I could do that," Aella said softly, thinking of Percy and Annabeth.

"It's not easy, but if you're ever in a situation like that I think you could."

They both sat in silence, watching as Dean dove under the car to fix something or another. The wind picked up the dead leaves, sending them for one last flight through the air. Night had fallen.

* * *

The next morning, Aella woke to find that someone had left clothes for her on the edge of the bed. She'd been given Bobby's bed while he and the boys found spaces elsewhere around the couch to sleep. She would have protested, but she'd fallen asleep curled up in the grass, completely exhausted after she'd eaten her burger last night. She'd managed to stay awake just long enough to brush off a small offering into the dying embers of the grill. It had been the first prayer she'd made out to her father, Apollo.

Taking the clothes, she found they were almost the right size. The jeans were about a size too big, but the black tank top fit perfect. She found that someone had also left her a new hoodie. It was orange. She gently touched the fabric, eyes stinging for a moment. Before she got dressed, she worked through her blonde hair, which was about two days overdue for a brushing. It took her a while to work through the thick tangles and she was half tempted to grab a pair of scissors by the time she was done. Drawing on the new clothes, she made sure that she still had her bead necklace (there were four, hand painted beads adorning it) and then left the room, heading for the kitchen.

The others were already dressed and washing their bowls and plates when she arrived. Dean gave a satisfied nod when he saw her.

"See? Told you those would fit."

"Where did you even get them from?" Aella asked, wondering if Bobby had a kid or something.

"I grabbed them in town yesterday real fast while we were getting the ingredients for your ritual."

"Oh," she said softly as he grabbed a piece of toast and started to put butter on it, "So what's the plan then?"

"You guys will head out for New Mexico. Another group of hunters I know has been following Apollo's trail. They just missed him when he went and killed…" Bobby let the sentence hang, a pained look in his eyes.

"How do you even follow a god?" Aella wondered, "I mean, they're just...there or not, right?"

Dean frowned at her, "Not exactly. They have physical bodies like you or me. They're just picky about how they can be killed and are massive pains in the ass."

The idea of killing a God still unsettled her, but she kept that to herself.

"Aella, Bobby mentioned you might not want to come with us?"

Aella frowned at Sam, "He did?"

"He said you seemed a little concerned about going after a god."

Aella looked to Bobby, but his face gave nothing away. He was giving her a chance to escape. Aella bit her lower lip, thinking. In the end, there really was only one option. There was nothing for her here in Bobby's house. The books would only get her so far. No, if she wanted to get home, she'd need to figure out how to do it on her own. She had to find a way to get up to the camp to see things for herself. There was the off chance that Bobby might drive her to New York, but she doubted that. She also doubted he had the money needed to get her there by train or plane. That left her one option if she wanted answers.

"As long as I don't have to ah, do the killing, I think I can stay with Sam and Dean if they'll let me."

Dean snorted, "Kid, we wouldn't ask you to do that. You'll just wait back at the hotel or in the car when we go off to that job. You can help us with the research to earn your stay."

"Well if that's all settled," Bobby grumbled, "Then get your stuff packed. You don't want to lose the trail."

Aella finished up her toast and after helping out with the dishes (in spite Bobby's protests) she headed back to the room she'd stayed in and picked up what few belongings she had. She stuffed them all into a plastic bag and went out to the car, tossing them in the backseat.

The boys took a little longer, but soon enough they were saying goodbye to Bobby. Aella gave him tight hug before she hopped into the back, rolling down the window so she could lean out and wave as they drove away.

It was a long drive to New Mexico and Aella was slowly discovering that while she didn't mind long car rides, she did dislike when the windows were rolled up for extended periods of time while they drove. It made her feel trapped.

The trio entertained themselves through the drive with various cassette tapes featuring 70s rock bands (many of which Aella didn't know, but soon grew to like). Whenever the music became boring Sam and Dean told her stories about the monsters they'd come across in their travels, giving her a crash course on modern mythology.

It varied greatly from the world she knew. Many of the monsters hid in human forms, but they didn't seem to be using the Mist to do it. It sounded as though they physically changed rather than altering perception. She wasn't sure which was scarier.

The boys tried to learn more about her too during the drive. She told them what she could without giving away everything. Half lies were always the best lies after all. She told them how her father had left her mother shortly after she'd been conceived and how she'd only briefly heard a few words from him when she was twelve and then there was nothing. She told them about how her family had been attacked by monsters when she was ten and how she'd been 'sent away' by her mother to camp for her protection at her dad's apparent suggestion (she'd thrown in that last part hurriedly after remembering she'd told the brothers her father had taught her how to fight). She explained too that the camp was sort of an outdoor survival camp and how she'd learned to use a number of weapons there. The story seemed to satisfy them. They didn't pry further into her past.

They started to tell her a bit about their own past. She learned how their mother died and how they were raised by their father to be hunters. They told her how Sam's girlfriend had been murdered by a demon they called 'Yellow Eyes' and how they were trying to stop Lucifer's return now.

That was a little unnerving. Aella had never really been religious and after she learned about the gods she was even less so. To think that Lucifer—the devil was real? That was almost more difficult to swallow than the idea that Apollo was her father.

Maybe it wasn't really Lucifer, she thought with a sudden shiver. It seemed a little too coincidental that Kronos was rising too. Could it be that they were one in the same? That the Mist was just obscuring what the mortals perceived? That didn't completely fit either though, Aella noted, recalling how the Winchesters mentioned that they saw monsters just fine. It was true that they could be Legacies—children of demigods, but that seemed unlikely since they didn't know seem to know about gods the way Aella knew them.

All in all, it was a confusing and upsetting matter. If the boys were right, that meant that the Camp had even more to worry about than they'd previously thought.

* * *

Two days after leaving Bobby's, the trio stopped to take a well-deserved break at a rest stop about two hours outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Aella had never been off the east coast and found the strange orange landscape fascinating. It had been decently hot earlier that day, but as night set in it rapidly began to cool off thanks to the lack of cloud cover.

Getting out of the car and stretching, the boys headed off into the food area to go pick up something to eat for them while Aella went to the restroom. It was strangely empty inside of the restroom. Normally the larger highway stops like these had a long wait for the women's room, but there was no one inside. Uneasy, Aella knelt down and peered under the stall doors to be sure that there weren't any creepers hiding before she relieved herself. As she washed her hands, she briefly looked down as she noticed the u-bend leaking and when she looked up, she saw man standing behind her.

She nearly screamed before she recognized the face staring at her through the reflection.

"Apollo!" she whispered, turning to face him.

He was quite a bit taller than Aella, nearly matching Dean's height. He wasn't quite as she remembered him though. Aella would never forget those eyes, but his face wasn't one she recognized. He looked older, somewhere in his twenties now, although no less modelesque, with his deeply tanned skin and pale, sun-bleached hair that seemed effortlessly tousled. He wasn't dressed as casually as she recalled either. He wore jeans and a t-shirt still, but everything about his outfit screamed money and his leather jacket was definitely not faux.

Apollo smiled at her, but there was no warmth in the gesture, "Oh, so you _do_ know me. I'm afraid I can't return the favor. Enlighten me."

Aella stared, her heart skipping, "You…don't remember me?"

"I think I would remember the human who gave me my first offering in nearly a century. A strange offering, I might add. Normally people sacrifice something."

He wasn't really looking at her, Aella noticed. He kept glancing back in the mirror at himself or idly twirling his keys.

"It's me. It's Aella, your daughter!"

Now it was his turn to look shocked, "Woah now, I think _I_ would remember hooking up with a human. I'll admit, life hasn't been nearly as active lately for me. For some reason people just aren't into the whole 'god of the sun' thing anymore...or maybe it was the poetry?"

Aella could feel herself trembling. She was more than just angry. She was hurt and she was furious with this man who had claimed her and didn't seem to care what happened to her. This man who had sired her and left her and her mother without a second word. She wanted to scream at him, but instead, she did something much, much stupider. She stood up as tall as she could and drew back before slapping him with all her might across the face.

"How dare you! You come and claim me after two YEARS of being at Camp and then you forget about me? I know I'm not powerful like my siblings, but this is a new low even for a god!"

Apollo frowned at her, too stunned by her words to react to the slap, "Camp? You don't mean Camp Half-Blood? But that was destroyed years ago. I haven't claimed a child since the sixties."

"So I keep hearing, but that's not possible. I was just there a few days ago."

Apollo took a step forward, looming over her. For a moment, Aella felt fear. Maybe slapping him hadn't been the best course of action. However, he didn't attack her. Instead, he leaned down and _smelled_ her.

"Aella, how did I claim you? What were my exact words?"

"You said I could stay in your cabin."

"You can stay in my cabin?"

Aella nodded as Apollo took another sniff of her hair.

"You _do_ smell like me, but it's not a strong scent. I'm sorry, but I'm not your father."

He looked genuinely sorry for her. Aella felt like her world was crumbling. So this was her answer, the reason why she had waited so long to be claimed, why she was so much weaker than her siblings...no, not her siblings.

"Hey, hey, don't get too upset. There's a good chance I'm probably your grandfather or great-grandfather, though I still think it's weird that I 'claimed' you like that. I honestly don't remember it at all."

It didn't make her feel any better, "This doesn't make sense. It has to be a mistake. You said Camp had been destroyed, but I was there."

"I'll admit, I don't get it any more than you do, but it's not there now I can assure you. There is one other thing I can tell you though I guess as a favor, one god to a demigod. I might not be your father, but you're definitely the child of a god. You smell more like a god than a human."

Aella didn't hesitate, "Who was my father then? Can you tell?"

"The scent is familiar, but—"

"Aella what's taking so long? You ok in there?"

Dean's voice.

Apollo's eyes narrowed, "You're with hunters?"

"They sort of saved me from a demon deal…"

"Demons? You're involved with-?" Apollo took a step back, "Demons and Winchesters. Now those are two things that I avidly avoid and I suggest you do the same. The next me meet...if you're with the Winchesters I can't promise that we won't be enemies."

He disappeared before Aella could inquire further. Dean came into the bathroom a moment later, his hand over his eyes.

"Aella, you alright? I thought I heard a dude."

"There was no one," Aella said quietly, taking Dean's hand and leading him out, "No one was there…"


	9. Chapter 8 - RepostUpdated

Albuquerque, New Mexico was exactly as Aella had imagined it, yet entirely different. Sure, it was almost completely flat aside from the odd mountain range off in the distance, but rather than being just a small town it looked a lot larger than she had expected, and the way the mountain loomed over the city made it seem like it had been planted there by a CGI team. It was hot out; hotter than anywhere else she had been since she had arrived here. They had all rolled down their windows for the ride. Aella found the air a little strange. There wasn't a hint of humidity. It smelled strange to her, although she did appreciate how the air lacked the stickiness it normally carried around her hometown.

The trio drove to a shopping center near the Rio Grande. This was the last known location of Apollo according to Bobby's sources. Aella kept her mouth shut. She hadn't told the brothers about her meeting with Apollo at the rest stop. Even though he wasn't her father (she was still having trouble believing that), she held some loyalty to the gods. ' _It still doesn't make sense though. Gods don't bother with mortals'._ She still couldn't wrap her mind around Apollo killing people either. After all, she'd slapped him and he hadn't immediately vaporized her.

They pulled up to a rather large mall that took far too long to find parking at. After circling the parking lot for ten minutes, Dean found a space that 'was wide enough that he didn't have to worry about anyone denting his doors'. Before they left, they geared up. Dean and Sam put on a number of weapons, including knives, guns, and bags of herbs. They gave Aella back her bow, which was hidden away in a container usually reserved for holding art prints and posters. She put her knife away at the small of her back with a new sheath she'd gotten from Bobby's and slung the bag over her shoulder. It felt good to have the familiar weight of her weapons once again.

The mall definitely seemed like somewhere Apollo would shop. It was grand, newly built and opened just that year with a number of high-end shops. Aella wouldn't have been able to afford half the stores in here. They weren't here to shop though. They were searching for a god.

"Wouldn't he have moved on by now?" Aella asked uncertainly, thinking of her earlier meeting.

"Maybe, but Bobby's source said that he frequents this area, so who knows," Dean said as he pushed open the double doors, holding one open for Aella and Sam to pass through, "The real question is whether we'll recognize him when we find him."

"Or if he'll recognize us first," Sam grumbled, "It's a hunt after all."

"Alright, here's the plan: We'll split up. We'll cover more ground that way."

"And attract attention," Aella butt in, "If we split up, won't it look a little odd? Say he's watching us now, yeah? Or even just the general security. If we split up now they'll wonder why we're all wandering about without buying anything and why we left each other."

"She has a point," Sam admitted as they paused by the food court, "If it looks like we're looking for something as a group, people might think we're just looking for more friends or something. Splitting up and searching around could look a little weird, and I don't like the idea of Aella being off alone."

"Hey, I can look after myself."

"You're still just a kid. Until we find out about that demon deal and get you home safe, you're sticking with us. Bobby would kill us if you got hurt."

"I agree with Sam," Dean said, much to Aella's surprise.

"So it's settled. We'll stay together. Come on, let's get searching."

As they began on their way again, Aella asked offhandedly, "So...what does Apollo even look like?"

She hoped she sounded casual. She wasn't a very good liar.

"Bobby's source said the guy was the model sort? Blonde, tall, you get the picture."

"Dean, that describes...a lot of people."

Even as Sam said it they passed a shop where three tall, blonde men came out. None of them were Apollo, Aella noted.

"You don't normally go in this blind, do you?"

"Normally we conduct interviews to get more information," Dean admitted.

"Maybe we should start there. Act like we're looking for our cousin or something."

They had done a full lap around the first floor by now. So far, nothing. Aella was secretly glad that she hadn't spotted Apollo yet. She hadn't forgotten his warning after all.

They were about to move up onto escalators to the fifth floor when Aella noticed something odd walking down the hall. At first, it looked like a rather large dog, perhaps a chow or husky. It seemed too big to be a dog though. Strangely no one seemed to notice it. They all just milled around the dog, noses buried in their phones or chatting with each other.

"What is that?" Sam asked from behind her, pausing at bottom of the escalator.

"What's what?"

"That," Aella murmured, pointing, "Is a very large dog."

After she said it, Dean agreed, "Oh yeah, huh. I didn't notice. Weird."

It was weird, Aella noted, and then she realized exactly what was going on. Her stomach fluttered and she reached for the knife at the small of her back.

"Aella? What is it?"

"It's the Mist, Sam. It obscures the sight of mortals so they can't see monsters."

"You and Sam saw it though? What sort of monster is a giant dog though?"

"I don't think that's a dog…"

The longer she stared at the 'dog', the clearer it became to her. It was beautiful really, with bright, gilded fur and silver claws. Its mane billowed out around it like a silken cloak. It was easily the size of a small pick up truck.

Aella had never faced a monster like this; not this strong or big. The ones that had attacked her home as a child had been small cyclopes. This was a named monster from legend, one that Hercules had faced, one that Percy Jackson had faced. This was the Nemean lion.

What was it doing here though? Judging by Sam and Dean's expressions, this wasn't normal.

"Well, doesn't matter whether it's normal or not, does it?" she mused quietly to herself.

Instinct and training took over. She was scared, yes, but she also knew what she had to do. This monster would notice her whether she attacked or not, being the only demigod in the vicinity. Chances were it was here _because_ of her.

She pulled her hood up and took her bow out of her bag. In two swift motions, she had the bow strung and drawn, a narrow notched.

"Aella what are you doing? There are people-"

She loosed the arrow.

As the arrow struck the monster, it was as if the Mist had shattered. Everyone began screaming, pointing at the massive shining lion. Aella rushed forward as the lion charged, jumping and rolling away as it batted a large paw at her. Coming up behind it, she fired arrow after arrow, but to no effect. Each one bounced off as it found its mark.

She knew the legend of the lion. Its fur made it impervious to all attacks except by those committed with its own teeth and claws. The only vulnerable points were its mouth and eyes. Hitting an eye dead on though while trying to evade a thrashing giant lion was no easy task, however.

"Aella! We have to get this thing away from all these people!" Dean shouted somewhere to her left.

She agreed and started looking around for a place to run to. The escalator.

Aella bolted, shouting at the lion, "Here, kitty, kitty! Half-blood in the house!"

Sure enough, it followed her. Aella had always been a fast runner. In school, she played midfield on the soccer team and no one could catch her when she started to run. It always seemed like she had an extra spring to her step like something was pushing her when she ran.

The lion was hot on her heels, but she managed to keep enough distance between it that it wasn't an immediate threat. She'd nearly run the length of the mall when she found what she was looking for: a service hallway. She skid to a halt and turned down it. She could hear the lion's claws on the tiled floor, slowly shortening the distance between them.

There was a dead end at the end, but she'd expected that. She stopped and grabbed the nearest door handle and yanked it open. It led to a short staircase, which she sprinted up two steps at a time. Behind her, she heard the lion smash through the door.

Reaching the top landing, Aella opened the door and was nearly blinded. She'd run to the roof.

She dashed to the opposite end and waited. Well, this was open enough, that was for sure. No stray mortal would be wounded up here. She didn't see Dean and Sam and assumed that they'd fallen behind during the mad rush.

"Alright, kitty. Now I doubt you'll have any answers, but I'll ask anyway. What happened to my camp?"

The Nemean lion merely roared at her and charged. Aella had barely enough time to react. She shot off one arrow and was just grabbing another arrow when it slammed into her. Her feet were knocked out from her and suddenly she was flying through the air with the lion jaw latching onto her shoulder. She cried out and drove her arrow into the lion's eye, but instead of skidding to a halt she was still moving. They were tumbling over and over, moving farther apart with each roll, bouncing across the concrete, and then she was falling.

She expected to feel a drop like a roller coaster, but instead, she felt a massive gust of wind beneath her and the overpowering smell of ozone. Looking down, Aella saw that she had landed on what looked like a horse made of stormclouds and electricity.

She didn't have long to process this though. Suddenly the storm spirit was moving, running through the air until it had landed on the roof once more before the fading Nemean lion. As its body turned to dust, there was a crack like thunder and a massive portal opened up behind it, drawing in the golden dust. Cutting through the ozone mane of the storm spirit was the smell of sulfur.

And in that moment, Aella understood exactly what was going on.

* * *

Sam and Dean arrived just in time to see Aella falling over the side of the building. Before they had time to properly freak out though, she appeared again on the back of what could only be described as a storm horse. While they hadn't expected to see that, they certainly hadn't expected to see the disintegrating body of the lion disappearing into a massive portal.

And that was when Aella charged the portal.

"Wait, Aella!"

Before she could reach it though it rippled and vanished, leaving only the scent of sulfur in its wake.

* * *

Aella's knees scraped against the ground as she leapt off the _anemoi thuellai_ , throwing herself at the portal. Her fingers brushed the warp in space, but as soon as they touched, the portal collapsed, vanishing without a trace. She stared at the spot, heart pounding. Her fingers tingled where they had brushed the portal. The sensation was spreading through her hand, down her arm, through her chest.

" _Percy, you need to calm down."_

" _Those things are coming through those portals. I'm going through to stop them. It's like a doorway, right?"_

Those voices. Percy and Chiron. Aella could hear them as if she were standing in between them. Her vision was gone, muddled away to nothing, and it felt as if her entire body was a sleeping limb. She could still feel the ground beneath her and the distant voices of Sam and Dean. She could smell the ozone residue of the storm spirit. She couldn't react to anything though; just listen to everything playing out around her.

" _It is, but Percy, you are needed here. We already...there is already someone working on the other side."_

" _Who?"_

" _Use your head, Seaweed Brain," came a new voice, "Who is the only person unaccounted for right now?"_

Aella knew that voice too.

" _Annabeth, you don't mean...but I thought she was in-"_

" _Clovis, that son of Hypnos, tried to find her in his dreams to see if her could bring her back. She's not there and she's not dead, and based on the conversation Chiron had with her through that weird Iris Message it seems like the only possibility."_

" _Chiron, you have to let me go. If she's all alone in whatever world those things come from-"_

" _Percy, she's a lot more capable than you imagine. She's been at camp nearly as long as you have and she's a year round camper. She can handle herself. I will speak to Ares cabin about getting her some help though."_

" _The Ares cabin is too busy as it is protecting the camp already."_

" _Wait, Percy! Where are you going?"_

"Aella! Hey!"

Aella blinked, her vision starting to clear. Dean was staring at her, his hands on her shoulders as he lightly shook her.

"Huh?"

"You ok? You blanked out for a second there. I was starting to think your new friend there hurt you or something."

"New friend?" Aella looked towards where Dean was pointing and saw the storm spirit, which was currently trying to ingest Sam's hair, "An anemoi thuellai…"

"What?"

Sam tried to push the storm spirit off, "She means this thing. It's Greek. They're weather spirits under the control of the wind gods, right?"

"What's a storm spirit doing snatching random kids up from the side of a mall? First a giant cat and now this thing."

Aella got shakily to her feet. Dean tried to push her back down, saying something about her shoulder, but at the moment she didn't really care. She walked up to the horse, staring it right in the eyes.

"What do you know about what's going on? I know I'm not Percy, so I can't understand you, but maybe you caught something on the wind you can relay to me?"

Sam cast her an odd look before glancing over her shoulder at Dean. No doubt they were having their own silent conversation about her words.

The storm spirit seemed to huff, as if in exasperation, but instead, she felt herself enveloped by a gust of warm, dry air. There were voices on the air; bits of captured conversations trapped by the storm spirit as it had flown about, minding its own business. None of the words made any sense, most of them coming in too small of chunks to have any meaning. What she did learn was that the storm spirit had been sent by the gods to find out what was on the other side of the portals that kept popping up.

As the wind subsided, Aella sighed, then thanked the spirit, "I suppose you'll want to go home now? I don't know that you can though. The portal closed."

They were both stuck there. Aella had finally figured it out. The two brothers were looking at her curiously. It wasn't the good sort of curious though. She noted the way their brows had furrowed into a frown and the way their eyes had narrowed in thought.

"So what exactly just happened?" Dean was the first to break the silence.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think I figured out what that demon meant before, or at least what she was trying to do with that witch. I have to talk to Bobby first though. He had a theory too."

"He didn't mention anything to us," Sam said, "But I've got his number. Before we call him though we have to get you patched up, or did you forget that a lion tried to turn you into a chew toy?"

Aella looked over at her shoulder, wincing when she finally noticed the tattered hoodie and blood. Why was it things always hurt more once one saw them? She reached up to touch the wound, but Sam pushed her hand back.

"You'll get bacteria in it. Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

"Wait, what's this?" Dean stooped down and picked something up off the ground, "A pelt? Where did this come from? It looks like it's from that damn lion."

"It is. It must be a trophy from the victory."

Aella peered at it, wondering if it would change form from the mist. Sure enough, it did, changing into a leather jacket. Dean dropped it as if it were on fire, cursing.

"It looks like it's your size, Dean," Aella mused, "Keep it."

"The hell I will! It's not right, kid."

"It's the pelt of the Nemean lion. It'll deflect nearly anything. You can't tell me that you of all people doesn't need something like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked, eyebrow arching.

"It means Bobby told me some of your stories, alright?"

Dean picked up the jacket again, making a face at it before putting it on. He seemed satisfied enough with the fit since he didn't take it off immediately.

"So now what? Find a hospital or go to the car and patch the kid up there? And what about the horse?"

In the end, they decided to go out to the Impala to clean up Aella there. They didn't want to face the questions they would get at the hospital. The storm spirit followed them for a while, sitting in the parking lot by the car as it watched Sam help Aella strip off her ruined hoodie. If Aella didn't know any better, she would have sworn the horse was daring Sam to try anything funny. Aella pulled her tank top strap over so her arm was free of the sleeve.

Looking over the wound, Sam told her it would probably scar, but it wasn't as bad as it looked. He cleaned it as gently as he could with the antiseptic before stitching it up and bandaging it. That done, Aella changed into a new shirt in the back of the car (a simple black t-shirt that was probably Dean's).

With all the excitement caused by the lion, they knew they had probably lost Apollo's trail, but Sam and Dean seemed more interested in Aella's theory about the demon's plan. After convincing the boys to let her talk to Bobby alone, she took Sam's phone and went off a short distance away.

The phone rang three times before Bobby picked up.

"Sam, how's the hunt for Apollo going?"

"Actually, it's Aella, and it's not."

"Aella? Did something happen to the boys? Are you alright?"

She was touched by the concern in his voice, "I'm fine. We're all fine. We were attacked by a random nemean lion, but we killed it and got a new jacket and horse in the process and a massive portal thing sucked up the body, but that's not the point...well, actually it is. Bobby, I think I figured it out. I think I know what's going on."

"Slow down! What are you talking about? What did you figure out?"

"Bobby...you said you had an idea about what was going on. Maybe I'm going a little crazy, so jump in if you think I am, but...do you think I've sort of...that I'm…"

"From another reality?"

Hearing Bobby say it, she felt a rush of relief and a sudden twist of fear, "So you do think what I do."

"There are lots of accounts of people traveling to other worlds in mythology. It wouldn't surprise me. Frankly, nothing does anymore."

"I think it's more than just that though. Bobby, I think the demons are bringing demigods from my world through to possess them. Lucifer is rising, right? So he needs an army and demons are limited in the bodies of mortals, erm, humans rather."

"Why haven't they pulled any other kids through then or possessed the demigods from this world?"

"I don't think there _are_ any left in this world." Aella paused, then said in a near whisper, "I met Apollo. The brothers don't know. I couldn't...if they knew. You told me not to, and see, I thought that he was my father, so I couldn't since they were hunting them and-"

"Thought? Wait, you knew they were hunting Apollo and decided to join even though he was your dad?"

There was an edge to his voice and Aella quickly jumped in.

"Was. He's not. He said so himself. He also said things wouldn't end well if I stayed with the Winchesters, but I don't want to leave them. I didn't want to before I knew he was my dad either because well, I don't know. They were the only ones who I thought could give me answers and I wanted to see if everything was a misunderstanding. The point is though, he said he hasn't had any kids in years, which means that—"

"Other gods probably aren't either. You mentioned that your camp had been destroyed for a while now and that was a refuge for demigods. No refuge, no kids probably survive..." He seemed to be following the same train of thought as her, "You think that the demon and witch were trying to summon a demigod from this world, but since there aren't any it broke a hole to your world."

"Exactly."

Bobby was silent for a long while before he said, "A portal sucked up the Nemean lion. Those holes could go both ways."

"They do. I had a vision of sorts. I heard the voices of some campers from my world after I touched the portal. One of the guys mentioned that things are coming through portals. Could it be demons?"

"There are tons of monsters in this world. It could be anything."

"Bobby, what should we do? Should we tell Sam and Dean?"

"No! Sam might understand, but Dean won't. Aella, whatever you do, they cannot learn what you are. You said your dad isn't Apollo, but you're still the child of some other god. Dean won't think of you as human."

Aella peered over towards the Impala, where Dean and Sam were watching her intently, waiting for her to return.

"What do I tell them then? They're going to ask questions."

"We'll tell them that you're a hunter from another world and if they press about it, just say hunters have a different name where you come from. That should cover why you know how to fight and know about monsters. I'm assuming that you do?"

"More than I want to know, yes."

"Tell them that and that you were pulled through the portal by mistake. You're trying to seal all the portals now, but don't know how."

"Will that believe that?"

"Hand them the phone."

* * *

A few minutes later, the trio was driving once more. They hadn't said a word since the chat with Bobby on the phone. Aella didn't blame them. It was a lot to digest. Even she was having trouble with it all. The three of them were all used to weird things in their own way, but this took things a step further. At least they seemed to believe Bobby's story about her. They hadn't thrown her out of the car after all.

All Aella wanted to do now was go to the motel and contact Chiron via an impromptu shower rainbow. He would know how to solve the problem of the portals and if he didn't, he would know someone who did. Then she could relay the information to Bobby and they could fix everything. ' _They'd get along well if they ever met'._

She always wanted to be a hero, even if she told people that she didn't care that much; that she was just a child of Apollo with no useful skills. Suddenly everything had opened up for her. She wasn't held by the leash of Apollo anymore. She was on an adventure. She might not have a fancy prophecy like others who went off on quests, but there was no denying that that was what this was. She thought she'd be upset to be unclaimed again, but instead, it felt like a second chance.

Aella was drawn from her thoughts as there was a bright flash of red light and the car suddenly came to a grinding halt.

"Son of a bitch!"

As her eyes cleared, Aella saw that someone was standing in the center of the road. A boy with dark hair and eyes like the sea stared at them. The moment he saw her, he grinned widely and ran over to the open window.

"Well, that was probably the easiest quest I've ever had. Hey, Aella."

"Who the hell are you?" Dean practically shouted.

"I'm Percy. Nice to meet you."


	10. Chapter 9 - RepostUpdated

Percy stared at the car, still grinning obnoxiously at Aella as he leaned into the car through the window. Sam and Dean seemed to be at a loss for words, staring at the dark-haired teen who was apparently completely oblivious to the rising tension. Thankfully, neither of the brothers had drawn a gun yet.

"You know this kid?" Dean asked pointedly.

Know him? Of course, she knew _of_ him. She'd hardly ever had a conversation with the guy though.

What on earth was Percy Jackson doing here? He'd definitely mentioned a quest, which didn't seem right to Aella, especially given the context of his words. She hadn't forgotten the voices she'd heard after touching the portal earlier either. Percy Jackson had said something about going to help 'someone on the other side'. Could he have really gone and jumped through a portal to who knows what without a second thought? A nasty voice in the back of her head reminded her that she'd tried to do the same thing an hour ago.

"Can you tell him to get the hell off the door like that and explain to me what is going on?"

Percy blinked, looking at Dean before letting go and backing up, "Sorry, got a bit excited. Things just don't normally go this well for me."

"Generally things don't go well for people who fall from the sky in front of cars," Sam said, "Care to explain?"

"This is Percy," Aella quickly jumped in, "He's a...a friend of mine from camp! That camp for hunters that Bobby told you about."

She was careful how she worded everything. It was the _hunter_ camp that _Bobby_ told them about, not the one she'd vaguely mentioned in the past. The lie was getting more confusing by the second, and now that Percy was here, she would have to find some way to tell him to keep things on the down low.

Thankfully, Percy wasn't stupid. No doubt Annabeth wouldn't have tolerated him if he was. For all the snarky looks and comments, he was smarter than he let on.

"We can talk more about it somewhere else. I don't really think the road is a good place for a conversation like this. Mind if I hop in?"

"What does this look like, a bus?" Dean let out a heavy sigh and grumbled, "Fine, get in. This day's already weird. Can't get any weirder. Camp for hunters my ass...getting really tired of picking up stray kids."

Once Percy had settled into the back beside Aella, they drove in silence towards the motel. Every so often Aella would glance over at Percy, who was preoccupied with looking out the window, a distant gaze in his eyes. She wondered what he was thinking about. No doubt he was probably having second thoughts about jumping into a portal to save some random demigod he hardly knew. How was she even going to begin to explain things?

"So you're really alive, huh?" Percy said quietly, breaking the quiet, "We were starting to think that maybe you were really gone for good. It's been a few months after all."

"Months? What do you mean? It's barely been a week since I left camp."

Percy stared hesitating, "It's been longer than you think? Maybe from your perspective, it was only a week, but it's nearly summer back home now and you went missing a little after Christmas."

"You can't be serious," Aella murmured, "My mom must be frantic!"

"About that…" Percy began but stopped as the car pulled up to a motel.

Dean got out of the car without a word and gestured to Sam to follow before giving Percy and Aella a 'move and you die' glare. Apparently, he wasn't keen on buying the story, even if Bobby had been the one to tell him. As soon as the brothers were out of sight, Aella launched into an explanation.

"Ok, in this world, being a demigod is bad. I mean REALLY bad, like, worse than our world. Those two? They're hunters. They hunt monsters and basically anything supernatural."

"Which...would include us I'm guessing? So I didn't get lucky this time?"

Aella shook her head, "'Fraid not. They're not bad guys though. I told their friend who's a hunter and he decided to help me anyway. They've had a rough time though from what I've gathered. Anyway, they think that we went to some camp for kids who are the children of hunters in another reality. I don't know how long they're going to buy that though considering how far-fetched it sounds."

"Pretend we're hunters-in-training, don't mention daddy issues or glowing swords. Got it. Oh, that reminds me. Here. Your dad asked me to give you this."

"You know Aella's dad?" Sam asked.

The brothers had returned. They hopped into the car and started to drive towards the far end of the motel where their room was.

"Yeah, I helped her dad's sister out a while back so I guess he figured he could trust me."

He still thought that Apollo was her father. Maybe he was, back in that reality. Part of her started to question the Apollo of this world, but deep down she knew what he'd said was true. She'd never really fit in with the children of Apollo.

"Did he specifically say it was for 'his daughter' or for 'Aella'?"

Percy frowned, thinking back, "Pretty sure he just said 'Aella', but most go-guys are like that when they're distant parents, you know? My dad's the same. I would feel weird if he called me 'son'."

"I guess…" Aella murmured slowly, "Anyway, you were saying?"

"Oh yeah, he wanted to give you this bracelet. He said it'll be better than the one you have."

The one she had? Aella didn't have any bracelets. They got in the way of her bow. Percy was giving her a wide-eyed look, looking pointedly down at the bracelet, then back at her. When it was obvious she wasn't getting it, Percy stated,

"It's like the pen I got from our councilor. That really nice one?"

Aella gasped, "He gave me something like that? Why would he do that for me? None of the others in my cabin got that except the head."

Percy gave a shrug and passed over a bronze bracelet. It was made with a simple chain. Around the middle, there was a pendant shaped like a sun from a tarot card. It looked normal enough, but she could practically feel the warmth humming from the pendant.

"I don't know what the big deal about fancy pens and jewelry is, but can you two get out so I can lock the car?"

* * *

Dean didn't like this. He didn't trust Aella after the whole giant lion and storm horse incident (the horse was currently curled up behind the motel sleeping). He really didn't trust Percy. The kid seemed had a mischievous look to him that Dean didn't like and he didn't carry himself like a kid would. Every so often Dean would notice a shift in his stance as if he were preparing to block an attack or spring one himself. He would have sent them both away if not for Bobby's words…

 _Dean put the phone on speaker so Sam could hear as well. He could hear Bobby doing something in the background while he spoke._

" _Boys, I've been doing some research and with Aella's input, I think we've finally figured it out. Alternate realities and other worlds are pretty common in mythology; Alfheim, Tir Na Nog, Asgard, Avalon, you get the picture. Point is, Aella's popped through from an alternate reality."_

" _You're joking. Bobby, what the hell? I can buy angels and demons, but other worlds?"_

" _It's the only way to explain it. I've been searching for this 'camp' Aella keeps mentioning and I found a record of it being destroyed a while back. Only problem with that is Aella says she just came from there and she isn't a time traveler, so the that leaves us with…"_

" _Alternate worlds. Just when things couldn't get weirder. Ok, so what was a demon doing trying to summon her through? Is she some kind of creature or-?_

" _I think the demon wanted to get something near me, but I was pulled through instead," Aella said, "These portals, they're not really precise, are they? If they were, I doubt the basement would have blown up like it did. They seem pretty unstable and volatile."_

" _Why would she have grabbed you instead?" Sam asked._

" _Because I was fighting a monster on the border of camp right when it happened. I didn't mention it at first because I didn't know you were hunters or what hunters even were. They don't really give hunters a name back home. Most don't live long unless they train first at camp so it's tradition for us to go there and train before we go out into the real world to fight. It's sort of something we inherit like a blood right I guess. Either way, this is what I've been training for." Aella gave the phone a determined look, "I'm going to find a way to close these rifts for good."_

It sounded like a hunter boot camp to him. Dean knew Bobby well and he could tell from his voice that something was off. Did he think he was under a spell? No. He did, however, think that Bobby was hiding something. The way that Aella and Percy had sat together in the back whispering while him and Sam had gone to get the room key only added to his suspicion that they weren't being told everything.

"If it's bothering you so much, just confront them. Aella doesn't seem like the type who can hold up to a direct question. She seems like a partial truth sort of person."

The two brothers were sitting outside on the front walk of the motel, idly drinking beer. The two kids were both asleep now, seeing as it was ten at night and they couldn't distract themselves with the TV (there was terrible interference that made it nearly impossible to get any good channels).

"Percy doesn't seem like he'd be able to lie for shit either," Dean agreed, "But I want to see this play out. Aella knows something about Apollo. She gets quiet every time he's brought up. You noticed that back at Bobby's right?"

"Yeah, it seems that way," Sam chuckled, "Other worlds though? I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it."

"Think it's true?"

"If Bobby says it is, I believe it. I don't think that the other world part is the lie, but if that's not the lie then I'm not sure what is."

Dean finished off his beer and set the bottle down gently on the concrete, "This is the last thing we need while dealing with this Lucifer rising bullshit. Mysterious kids popping up from the sky! Hah!"

"No kidding. If that lion was just the start of what's to come through those portals, who knows what the demons will bring through when they've gotten better at opening them. It seems like the monsters from their world are a lot more bestial."

"Think Aella can close them?"

"She's only human and she's just a kid, hunter in training or not. I don't think there's much she can do. Bobby will figure it out somehow and then we'll take care of it after we send her back. She's probably getting pretty homesick by now."

* * *

The two demigods weren't sleeping. They waited until Sam and Dean had left the room before bolting upright and running to the bathroom. In any other situation, it might have looked comical, the way they half ran half tiptoed across the room. Once inside the safety of the bathroom, they gave each other triumphant looks before Aella took out her prism, angling it to make a rainbow.

"This was how I managed it the first time," Aella whispered, "We'll see if Iris can patch us through again. Do you have a drachma?"

Percy pulled one out of his pocket and threw it into the rainbow, chanting, "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Message Chiron!"

An ethereal voice echoed through the room, "Oh, it's you again and you have a friend this time. Another demigod? Hang on, I'll send this through. The connection is getting stronger. The call shouldn't drop this time."

"Getting stronger?" Aella puzzled, "You don't think that's because more rifts are opening up or something, do you Percy?"

Before the message could go through, the bathroom door opened up and a very confused Sam stood in the doorway, staring at the two teens huddled on the floor staring intently a prism.

He blinked at them for a moment, then said, "I'm not going to ask…" and closed the door just as Chiron's face appeared.

As Chiron came into view, his face taking up the entire image cast in the makeshift rainbow. Aella could just make out the foot of a bed behind him and recognized it as the bed she'd seen in her vision the first time she'd dreamt about the camp. Why was Chiron frequenting this room in the big house? Wasn't this where those who were sick went to recover?

"Percy...dare I ask what possessed you to do exactly what I told you not to do?"

Chiron didn't sound angry. If anything, he sounded tired.

"I had to do something. No one else was doing anything to help and Mr. D doesn't care about—"

Aella nudged Percy. No matter what his or even her opinion of their camp counselor, he was still a god and it wasn't wise to say anything negative about them. She wouldn't put it past Mr. D to turn them into dolphins if they did manage to return to their own dimension if Percy talked poorly about him.

"Chiron, I don't know how long we have before the connection breaks. What do we need to do on our side to close the portals?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Percy, did you get any hints from the prophecy you got? You did stop to get a prophecy, right?"

Percy stared at Chiron, clearly debating what would make a good lie before finally saying, " _Well_ , I didn't exactly stop by to get one since ah, I was in a rush."

"I thought you said you had a quest?" Aella gasped, "You mean you literally did just find a portal and jump in?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up," Percy agreed, running a hand through his hair, "I was in a hurry, ok? A portal opened up in my cabin and I jumped in."

"Right in your cabin? Just randomly?"

Chiron cleared his throat, startling the two, "I'll see what I can do from our end to find something to close the portals. Annabeth's been looking nonstop since you left. Percy, Aella, whatever you do, you _have_ to get back to our side before we close the portals for good. I don't think I need to stress why."

Percy nodded grimly, "Right. We'll see what we can find out from our end."

"I think I have some ideas, Chiron. Bobby and I—erm, he's a friend of the guys who are helping me—the two of us figured out what caused all of this."

Aella explained about Lucifer rising and his demons possibly trying to build an army. She told him about the destroyed camp and her meeting with Apollo. She realized after she mentioned about Apollo that Percy was hearing all of this for the first time as well.

"We're talking about...Lucifer Lucifer here, right? Like, the devil?"

"The one and only."

Chiron had gone a shade lighter and looked to be in a state of horror. He was silent for a long while, then shook his head, "That does explain a lot. So these demons can possess humans, but demigods are a little bit tougher for them?"

"Yes. I think as long as the campers avoid physical contact with a human possessed by a demon they should be fine."

Aella quickly went on to explain how celestial bronze seemed to work fine in purifying humans of the demons and how there was a ritual used to help cleanse demigods if they were marked for possession. After promising Chiron that she'd get the ritual in full from Bobby, she asked one last question.

"Chiron, do you know who my father is since it isn't Apollo? And why would Apollo send me anything or let me stay in his cabin since I'm not his daughter?"

Chiron gave her a sad smile, "I don't know who your father is, although I'm sure that you'll figure it out in time if he doesn't claim you before them."

"So you know that it's her father then who's a god?" Percy jumped in.

"Yes," Chiron said, looking to Aella, "You asked why Apollo would show you favor. It's because of your mother."

"My mother? Why would he care about her if they didn't...you know."

"Because Apollo is her grandfather. You're what is known as a 'legacy'. Sometimes the bloodlines get watered down fairly quickly, but your mother retained quite a bit of her father's demigod blood. Combine her blood with your godly father's and I can see why it was you who was pulled through that portal."

Percy put his arm around her shoulders, "She's strong, see? What'd I tell you, Chiron? I'm not giving up on her yet so neither should you."

There was something behind his words, Aella noted, although the context was lost to her. Clearly, there had been a conversation between the two before he'd come to this world. The way he was looking at Chiron, she could see the challenge in his eyes.

"I never said she wasn't, Percy. I suggest though that you move fast and finish this to prevent what we spoke about."

"We'll chat later," Percy agreed.

The image faded and soon, all that was left was normal shower water. Percy reached over and turned it off, yawning as he did.

"Man I'm beat. Traveling through dimensions really wipes you out."

"Percy, what was all that about there at the end?"

"I'll tell you later, alright? It's nothing to worry about right now anyway."

Percy got to his feet and stretched before holding out a hand to Aella. She took it, grimacing at as she felt her muscles pull slightly from kneeling too long.

"What do we tell Sam and Dean if they ask what we were doing in here for so long?"

"They're probably back outside drinking," Aella shrugged, "Just say that we were trading stories and didn't want to be disturbed."

"Alone? In a bathroom?"

"We're 'just kids' so they won't think anything of it."

* * *

Sam stood up slowly, frowning at the bathroom door. Of course, he hadn't left when he'd seen the two staring intently at a shower. His first thought had been that they were going to use the opportunity to talk alone about whatever they needed to talk about. They were kids after all. Kids liked to have secrets, or at least they liked to pretend to have them.

Sam had been content to walk away until he'd heard a man's voice. Pressing his ear against the door, he'd listened in to the conversation. He'd only been able to catch about half of it, but he'd heard something about their camp and Aella's great-grandfather being Apollo. Sam had never imagined demigods being real, let alone them surviving in a human society to have children of their own. The events at Bobby's made a bit more sense now, as did Aella's reaction towards them going after Apollo.

He had more questions than answers after eavesdropping though. Who was the man they were speaking to? Chiron? It had to be a code name. Surely the trainer of heroes wouldn't be the leader of their camp. It was likely an honorary title or something. The more pressing question though was why he'd kept hearing the word 'demigod'? What did demigods have to do with all this? Perhaps most of the children at the hunter camp were grandchildren of gods. It would no doubt give them an advantage with fighting monsters.

Sam decided he wouldn't ask her directly about it yet. He'd listen for a little while longer. The last thing he wanted to do was scare Aella or her new friend Percy away. Like it or not, Sam knew that him and Dean needed those two if they wanted to close the portals that were opening up.

The door suddenly opened up, revealing a very startled Percy and Aella. They stared up at Sam, eyes widening, faces draining of color.

"Do you two mind? I want to get ready for bed. You two should be asleep by now. Go on."

He gently waved them off towards the beds before heading into the bathroom. Nothing seemed out of place and there was no sign of a man named 'Chiron'.

* * *

Aella woke up the next morning beside Percy, who was still completely asleep. They two had shared a bed (with a pillow and blanket barrier between them) while the Winchesters had taken the other bed in the motel room. That was the problem with motels. Most only had two queen sized beds. It had been fine when it had just been her and the brothers rotating between the two beds and a pullout sofa, but with Percy in the mix now this made a bit more sense.

Dean was already awake. He'd gone out earlier and brought back a bag of donuts and some coffee. Quietly scooting out of the bed, Aella went over and sat at the table with Dean, taking a donut.

"I spoke with Bobby a bit more," Dean began without preamble, "He thinks we should leave the Apollo case alone for a while and look into these portals. Next stop is going to be Richmond, Virginia. Buddy of Bobby's mentioned there's been a lot of weird activity there."

Aella took a bit of the donut, frowning, "Richmond? Wonder why that's become a hot spot."

"Who knows, but from there Bobby said we should go upstate and check out the remains of that camp."

Aella nearly choked, "What?"

"I know it'll be hard to see, but there might be clues there. We don't exactly have a lot to go off of with this. It's not like we can predict the portals. We don't even know if there's a focal point."

"Focal point?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah, like a fixed center. Knock out the center, it all crumbles like dominos."

"You think it'll be that simple?"

Dean shrugged, finishing a donut, "We can only hope. Once you finish that let's take a look at your shoulder again."

The rest of the group woke up while Dean was cleaning and rebandaging her shoulder. Once everyone had eaten, they started on the road. Sam and Dean stopped briefly at a clothes store to get Aella and Percy some clothes so they could have their own travel bags. Soon they were on the road again, making the trek across the country to Virginia.


	11. Chapter 10 - RepostUpdated

It was a long drive to Richmond, Virginia, especially with the growing tension. It took them a day and a half to make the 1,830 mile journey. It didn't take long for Aella and Percy to become bored with the flat scenery that dominated the majority of the trip. It wasn't until they began to cross into the Appalachian Mountains that their boredom finally hit a peak. Percy constantly rolled around in the backseat, unable to remain still, while Aella requested for Dean to change the music after he played through his Creedence Clearwater Revival tape for the sixth time (his response was for her to shut her cakehole). Both complained that there was nothing for them to do.

Eventually, Sam and Dean were forced to pull over at a Target to get something to shut them up. Sam suggested the two of them get books, but as Percy was dyslexic and Aella became car sick easily, the idea was quickly stomped out. In the end Dean sent them back out to the car and picked something out himself. He returned ten minutes later with six color books and two giant packs of crayons. He tossed them into the back seat, starting up the car.

"If you're going to act like children then I'm going to treat you like children!"

They were silent the rest of the trip.

"I can't believe it," Sam whispered, peering into the backseat, "You gave them crayons and let them draw for a few hours and bam! They're out."

The two kids were asleep in the back, using each other as pillows. The coloring books were stacked up on the floor, used up, and crayons littered the back seat. While Dean wasn't too pleased by the mess, he was just glad to have a moment of peace. Aella had been fine on her own, but with Percy she became just another kid.

"How old are they do you think? They can't be more than thirteen."

Sam nodded, "Aella mentioned being twelve I think...no, she was twelve when she heard from her father. She must be thirteen by now, or nearly thirteen. I'm not sure about Percy."

"He doesn't look much older," Dean agreed, "They've seen a lot though, especially Percy.

It wasn't a question. The boy was friendly enough and had a decent sense of humor, but there was a caution about him, like he expected everything that could go wrong to go wrong.

"At least they've got each other through all this now," Sam said, "I don't think they knew each other too well before, but they're close enough now."

"Hiding something will do that," Dean agreed.

"I told you to just ask them if you're curious."

Dean shook his head, "Nah, something tells me we'll find out soon enough. I don't think they're dangerous or anything. I wasn't sure at first, after the whole lion incident, but...come on, evil kids don't enjoy coloring books."

"Really? That's your standard?"

"Well it's true," Dean insisted.

* * *

Aella decided she was happy being back on the east coast. They were driving through the heart of Richmond now. It felt like a worn down Old Town to her. Almost all of the buildings were made of brick or haphazardly painted wood. In spite the obvious poverty, there was a lightness to it all that came from the art scene and multiple universities in the area. While the majority of the shop fronts had dirty or broken glass, the side facing alleyways were often painted with incredible murals. She particularly liked the one by a 711 of a woman with blue hair using mason jar of strawberries for a tub. Percy liked the one of a troop of angry cartoon pandas.

Even after seven o'clock, street parking was nearly impossible to find. Eventually, they parked in the student garage and then began to make their way to the job.

"It's on the campus apparently," Dean said, "One of the professors noticed that at night there seems to be something creeping around the center of the campus."

Sure enough, as they came walked past a small cluster of fast food restaurants, they found a compass made of different colored bricks at the center of a ring of buildings.

"That'll be the library there, and that looks like the food hall," Sam continued before Dean interrupted.

"Yeah, we get it, you went to college, but you didn't go here so shut up. We'll ask one of the nerds where the professor is. Oi! You! Pink hair!"

While Dean spoke to a group of what Aella assumed were art students, she looked around the immediate area with Percy.

"Think it's one of their monsters or ours?" Percy asked.

"Let's hope it's one of theirs so they stop snooping our trail. We don't have a clue what we're going to find up north at the ruins of this world's camp. For all we know, it could completely ruin the cover Bobby helped us build."

"I'm sure there'll be nothing. Best case scenario we find something to help us, worse there's nothing there at all. Hey, what's that?"

Percy pointed towards the alleyway between the food hall and what might have once been a warehouse but had now been converted to a theatre. He put his finger to his lips, gesturing. Aella and Percy ran over, but the alleyway was empty, devoid of life except for a group of smokers sitting over a vent.

"False call. Strange though, I could have sworn I saw something."

"Let's hope it was," Aella said, "There are still students around. We don't want humans in the crossfire."

"That's real subtle, saying things like 'humans'."

"Well, it's true…" Aella grumbled, crossing her arms.

"You need to get away from camp more often."

They went back over to Sam and Dean, who were waiting somewhat impatiently.

"They said Professor Elm is over on the other side of the campus. He has a class until eight, but we can sit in without causing too much of a fuss," Sam said.

"That's allowed?" Aella asked.

"Professors don't mind," he said with a shrug, "You only pay for the grade. Professor Elm sounds like the sort of professor who's just happy to teach. He apparently has a ton of classes, but this one is his most popular."

"What is it? A film history class?" Dean snorted.

"Monsters in Literature."

"Well, that's just...huh."

The class was, in fact, watching a film when they came in (Dean punch Sam's shoulder and pointed with a 'told you' look). The Christopher Lee _Dracula_ flashed across the screen, his eyes highlighted by a vertical spotlight. The professor spoke while the film played, pausing the clip to discuss how it varied from the original passage in _Dracula_. Sam and Dean took seats in the back while Aella and Percy continued to hover near the door.

"Nervous about being in a classroom?" Percy asked.

"You bet," Aella agreed, "Last time I was in one something exploded."

"Yeah, the last issue I had was—"

Someone in the back hushed them, staring pointedly at them until they both sat cross-legged on the floor. They waited there until the class was over, and then joined Sam and Dean as they strolled down the aisle to the front of the lecture hall. The professor was probably in his late thirties and looked like he was straight out of a movie, elbow patches and all. He gave the group a small wave, grinning at them.

"If you're here about the essay, no, I will not extend it. It's due Monday, even if it snows."

"It's supposed to snow?" Percy gasps.

"Well, apparently, but with as warm as its been lately I doubt it."

"We're not students, Professor Elm," Sam broke in, "I'm Sam Winchester and this is my brother, Dean. Bobby sent us."

"Singer! Ah! Great drinking buddy. He's sent me loads of great books in the past too, first editions at that! Excellent. Yes! I'm glad you came, but ah, if I might ask, who are those two?"

"These are our cousins," Sam lied, "That's Percy Jackson and Aella Cooper. They're shadowing us to learn the business."

"They're a bit young for that, aren't they? Shouldn't they be sitting down with some nice books on the subject first? I can offer a few suggestions."

"Professor Elm, can you tell us why we were called here?" Dean interrupted, "We're on a tight schedule."

"Oh yes, yes, of course! Now let me see here. I have a picture."

He took out his laptop and opened up a few folders before finally bringing up multiple pictures. Aella instantly recognized a few of the monsters, but one was unfamiliar to her.

"That one is definitely from our world," Percy grumbled, "That one is Medusa. Weird, I vaporized her a few summers ago. What's she doing back already?"

Dean stared at him, "You vaporized Medusa?"

"With some help from my friends, yeah. She wanted to turn us into statues for her garden shop. It's a long story."

Professor Elm stared, then cleared his throat, "Right...well, I've already classified the others as well. The first one, the Empousa, is a tricky foe. You'll want the lady to handle her. They hypnotize men. Now, the other one is a gorgon, yes. How do you know this one is Medusa though?"

"She looks like a grandmother," Percy said, "A really weird one."

"Right...so this last one here. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe it's Arachne."

Sam shook his head, "That doesn't look like the ones we killed before."

"Oh no, I'm not talking about the creatures, I mean _the_ Arachne, the one who was transformed by Athena."

"Huh...so what makes you think that's who it is?" Dean asked.

The professor flipped through the pictures again. He revealed a strange sight: a statue covered in webs.

"All the students think it's an art stunt, but we know better, don't we? They're appearing all over the city. Also, some of the textile students have gone missing."

"Sounds like something a jealous monster would do," Sam agreed, "So we have a pretty big monster roundup here. It's a little strange seeing so many in one area."

"I bet there's a portal," Aella suddenly said, "Professor, where did you take these pictures? Can you plot them on a map?"

"Of course, I can add in other sightings too. One moment."

The professor pulled out a well-worn map (probably used to show students how to get to classes) and started to plot the points. There were fifteen dots in all.

"Look, they all surround that building there. What is that?"

"That building there? That's a freshmen dorm. It used to be an old hotel, but it was converted some years ago."

"That's where we start looking for the portal," Aella said, "I'm sure of it. The monsters, I'm not sure, but to close the portal at least we know the way."

"I'm sorry, but what's this 'portal' you're talking about?" the professor asked.

"A lot more trouble than you want to know about," Dean said, rolling up the map, "Thanks for your help, Professor."

Professor Elm nodded, "Of course, of course. Let me know if you need any other assistance even ah...child care during the more dangerous bits. I don't mind watching Percy and Aella was it? What interesting names, I might add. Your parents must really like mythology."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"I'm guessing Percy's name is short for 'Perseus'? Ah yes, that look confirms it. Aella, you were named for one of Hippolyta's Amazons! She was the first Amazon to attack Heracles! Of course, he did kill her for that...but nevertheless, with a name that means 'whirlwind' and to stand up to Heracles, she must have been something. Your parents all had good taste in names. Were they professors? Scholars? Teachers?"

"Not really," they both said.

"Their parents are hunters, like us," Sam put in, "Thanks again for your help, Professor Elm. We'll get started on this tonight after we get a hotel room."

"Oh nonsense, you can stay with me tonight. I live right off campus, not even two minutes away."

The group agreed to stay with the somewhat odd professor, and after getting their things from the car, marched over to his house and set up for the night. He had a rather large split level with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. In spite the multiple bedrooms, Percy and Aella decided to stay in the same room once more. They said it was because they were homesick, but in reality it was for protection. It was safer for the two of them to stick together in case there was a monster attack. Two demigods were always better than one. After a homecooked meal by the professor's wife, who'd just come home from the lab, they prepared for the long night ahead. It was decided that Percy and Aella would go try to close the portal while Sam and Dean dealt with the spider-woman first.

* * *

"So...how do we get in?"

Aella shrugged at Percy, peering up at the building. It was made almost entirely of bricks and might have looked like an ordinary apartment building if not for the white Greek goddess statue that sat in a nook above the door. The statue looked quite poised in an old March Madness basketball t-shirt.

"Think it's alive?" Aella asked.

"Why would a statue be alive?" Percy asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Something I read Hephaestus does. He makes...automatons or something. I don't know. I think Annabeth mentioned it before."

Percy nodded, "She would know, wouldn't she? I'm guessing it's not one since it's not reacting to us."

"So how do we get in? The students all have to swipe their badges."

Percy thought for a moment, then grinned, "I've got this. Follow me."

They waited for a group of students to come sulking into the dorm (judging by their bulging backpacks they'd been studying at the library) and followed after them. Like the students, Percy and Aella stopped at the front desk and waited until the other students had all swiped their cards and cleared out. Percy let his shoulders hunch a bit as he walked up, putting on a pitiful look.

"Umm...my sister locked me out," Percy said simply, "My family's visiting and she's supposed to be babysitting us tonight."

The guard looked at him and shook her head, "Let me guess...Jesse?"

"How'd you know?"

"She left her parents down here for nearly an hour while she slept in. Thing is...I'm not allowed to let people up without a student escorting them."

"Even siblings?" Aella put in, looking down at the floor, "We were supposed to spend the night in her room. Her roommate even cleared out for us."

"She got Heather to leave? It's going to be a quiet night. Go ahead," the guard said, "The rule really only applies to adults. You don't have IDs you can leave here, right?"

Percy and Aella shook their heads in unison. The guard smiled and waved them on, "I'll see you two later. Don't get into too much trouble. Go straight to your sister's room, all right? Do you know which one it is?"

"It's umm….was it 346?" Aella asked Percy.

"I thought mom said it was the fourth floor?"

"It's on the fourth floor, yes. Goodness knows I've got that one memorized."

After thanking the guard they scurried off to the elevators. They stayed silent until the doors were shut and the rickety old thing was crawling upward.

"Did we really just break into a dorm?" Aella asked, staring at the doors, "Without even manipulating the Mist? You can't do it, right?"

"Nope. Thalia could, but I can't. She didn't get a chance to show me before she went off with Artemis."

"Huh…"

The two looked at each other and burst out laughing. It took them several moments to calm down even once the doors opened and they walked out into the hallway. Most of the doors were shut tight, but a few were open with people milling in and out.

"So...what exactly are we looking for?"

"The portal," Percy said, "They sort of just showed up back in our world...what do they do here?"

"Sort of just...show up?" Aella shrugged, "Do we ask some of the students if they've seen it?"

"I'm not sure how we could without coming off as complete nuts. We'll just poke around I guess. You think it's even still open?"

Aella nodded, "It's got to be. Or maybe it sort of...opens and closes randomly but in the same spot? Why else would so many monsters come through here?"

The two agreed to split up. They began searching up and down each floor, checking all of the hallways and any open dorm rooms. They even peered inside each bathroom stall, but they couldn't find any evidence of a portal, or even monsters in the area.

"Maybe it was a false lead," Percy said glumly sitting down on the floor at the end of the top floor hallway.

"I guess so. I don't want to go back empty handed though."

Aella sat down beside Percy with a yawn. It was well past midnight and even the college students were winding down for bed. Aella looked over to see Percy leaning his head back against the wall, his eyes shut.

It hadn't occurred to her how strange their newfound friendship was. They'd hardly spoken before coming to Earth 2.0, but now here they were after a week's friendship sharing nearly everything. Percy had told her all about his mother and everything she had done to keep him safe before he'd learned he was a demigod.

Aella told him about her own mom, though with a bit more hesitation. Her mother was odd, to say the least. She could never quite pinpoint the woman. They both shared the same bright blonde hair, but beyond that, there were few similarities. Her mother always said how much she looked like her father, whoever that was.

She'd opened up to Percy about that. He understood, confessing that he'd had a rocky relationship with his own godly parent too. As much as they wanted approval from their godly parent, there was always that lingering sense of rejection.

Continuing to look over at Percy, Aella felt oddly protective of the other demigod. She still couldn't believe he jumped through a portal to save someone he hardly knew...but that's what heroes did she supposed. _I'll bring you back to Annabeth and your mom_ , she thought, _I swear by the River Styx_. And she meant it.

"Hey, what are you kids doing here? This is a dorm, not a hotel."

Aella jumped and looked up to see a tall sorority girl standing over her. She looked like one of the daughters of Aphrodite, with her sun-kissed brown hair curled into perfect ringlets.

"We're visiting our sister," Aella began slowly, "We were waiting out in the hall for her to get back."

"Who's your sister? That girl Lizzy?"

"Jesse, actually," Aella said and she immediately realized her mistake.

" _I'm_ Jesse. Now I'll ask you again, what are you doing here?"

Percy was waking up now. He blinked slowly as he gained his bearings, then shouted in horror, pointing at Jesse's leg.

"What is that?!"

Aella frowned, then noticed that there was something shiny on Jesse's leg. If she narrowed her eyes, she could just see a glimmer of metal beneath a fuzzy haze of skin.

Thankfully, Percy was used to these situations. Without thinking he grabbed Aella's hand and stood up, dragging her with him. As he ran, he waved a hand at a water fountain, causing it to explode in a torrent at Jesse's face. She shrieked in rage, falling back.

"Nice one!" Aella grinned as they bolted towards the steps, "At least we found one monster!"

"You say that like it's a good thing," Percy smiled back.

They down two flights of stairs when Jesse appeared again, "Percy, you should stop. I don't want to hurt you two. I'm lost too. I just want to get back home."

Percy slowed down, looking back in confusion. Aella grabbed him just in time before Jesse made a swipe at him.

"Oi, snap out of it! She's charmspeaking you! She must be the empousa that the professor mentioned."

"Oh, now you tell me," Percy grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

Aella tapped the side of her bracelet. The bracelet shimmered, then a gold bow began for form from it. The golden recurve bow settled neatly into her hand, shimmering with a prepared arrow. Aella grinned. So this was the present that Apollo had sent with Percy. _Thanks, Great Gramp,_ she thought, drawing back on the string. She could feel the pressure behind the bow, but it held as easily as if she were using a compound bow.

Before the empousa could attack again, Aella fired. The arrow buried itself deep in the empousa's shoulder, just inches from her target. I would take time to get used to the new weapon. The power behind it was far more than she was used to. Still, she was pleased she could use it effectively at such a close range.

"Nice one!" Percy shouted, drawing out his own sword, Riptide.

Jesse wasn't discouraged by the two demigods. She laughed, a wide grin forming on her face.

"I missed demigods...they're so much more fun to play with that mortals. Come little children...it's time to play!"

She jumped down the flight of stairs, trying to tackle Aella, but Percy covered her, slashing at the empousa to give Aella another opening. Aella fired off two shots in rapid succession. One shot went wide and hit the wall behind Jesse, but the other hit her right in the center of her chest. She let out a scream, then evaporated into golden dust.

Percy whooped, running to Aella and holding out his fist. Aella laughed, following up the gesture. They were still congratulating themselves when a head popped around the corner, peering down at them. A girl with auburn hair slowly walked over, kneeling down beside the gold dust. She picked it up with a frown, her eyes narrowing.

"You know...that was my roommate."

"Umm...we can explain," Percy began, but he never got a chance to finish the sentence.

The girl threw himself at him, knocking him off his feet. Aella realized a second too late that this must have been Heather...and most likely an empousa as well. Aella drew her bow again, but hesitated. If she missed, she would hit Percy. Swearing like Dean, she let her magic bow disengage, returning it to its bracelet form, and leapt for the empousa. She jumped onto the girl's back, grabbing her hair and tugging back as hard as she could. The empousa screamed, reeling back and throwing Aella.

Aella went tumbling over the railing and the next thing she knew she was falling. Thankfully, before she hit the bottom, everything went black.


	12. Chapter 11 - RepostUpdated

Aella gasped, bolting upright. The first thing she registered was the startled look on Argus's face before he went rushing off. Aella blinked the confusion setting in. She was in the Big House…but what was she doing here? Pushing off the covers, Aella tried to stand, but immediately felt a wave of dizziness. The scent of sulfur nearly overwhelmed her and as she blinked, she saw double. One moment she saw the Big House, the next she looked up to see Percy shouting down at her from six floors above her. Her stomach churned and she doubled over, holding her head.

"Aella! You're awake! Here, drink this."

Someone was shoving a glass of something ice cold into her hands, forcing her to look up.

"Chiron!" Aella gasped, "But...how? What's going on?"

"I need you to drink this quickly, I don't know how much time we have."

"What do you mean? Chiron—" before she could go on he pushed the glass closer to her mouth.

Resigned, Aella drank down the nectar. It tasted just like her mother's homemade borshch. Chiron continued to stare at her until she finished every last drop. Normally nectar made her feel like she had downed three shots of espresso, but for some reason, she felt nothing after drinking it. Her head still spun and if she didn't concentrate her vision flashed back to the strange scene with Percy.

"You have been asleep for a long time, Aella. Unfortunately, you're going to go back to sleep shortly. No, don't ask questions. There is no time. What you need to know is that you have to find a way to break the demon's contract, or you will die and these two worlds will collapse upon themselves."

Aella shook her head, trying once more to stand. However, the gesture was futile. It was all she could do to sit up.

"Chiron, what contract?"

Chiron sat back in his wheelchair, crossing his arms. He thought for a moment, then spoke very quietly, "Give this message to Percy of this when you return,

 _The Harbinger shall wake in a world a monster_

 _Pacts of blood will be made while others are controlled_

 _Prophecies will come to pass, armies will amass_

 _Unless the trident fails to catch the wind._ "

Aella stared at him as a vision of Percy once more flashing before her eyes. He was running down the stairs towards her, the empousa just a step behind. He was slashing back with Riptide towards the empousa.

"Chiron...that's a prophecy."

He nodded, "Tell Percy...tell him the prophecy and that he can tell you the truth now."

Aella tried to ask what truth, but she was falling back once more, her vision turning into a watercolor tapestry of Chiron's worried face and Percy's distant shouting.

Aella blinked, once more attempting to sit up. However, she felt like she was on the world's strangest air mattress. Looking down, she gave a startled shout as she realized that she was sitting on nothing but air. Of course, as soon as she screamed she felt the puffed up air give way and she began to fall once more.

She would have fallen to her death if Percy hadn't reached out over the railing and grabbed her wrist at the last second.

"Hang on! I've got you! Can you do that wind trick again?"

Aella grabbed at the railing with her free hand, trying to pull herself up, "I don't know how!"

"Ok well just pretend like this is the lava wall back at camp and climb."

Between Percy's pulling and Aella's climbing, she was able to throw herself back onto the steps, where she sat shakily, gasping for air.

"Since when could you do that?" Percy asked warily, "Are you a daughter of Zeus?"

"I- I don't know...I don't think so," Aella whispered, looking over the side once more, "He'd have claimed me, wouldn't he?"

"The Big Three are...odd," Percy said carefully, "Come on, we've taken care of the monsters here. We should go back to Sam and Dean."

Aella shook her head, "No, we need to find the portal first. It's all right. I'm fine. I can do this."

"Are you sure? You just fell six floors and would have fallen further if not for whatever that was. What happened? One second you were there and then you were sort of...flashing."

"Flashing?"

"It was like a bad animation clip. One moment you were there and then it was like you lagged out or something. Like, you weren't completely gone, but you were sort of see-through."

"I saw Chiron. He told me to tell you...what did he say?"

Aella stared blankly ahead, thinking. For some reason, the conversation had trickled out of her head. It almost didn't seem real.

"You spoke with Chiron? But that means...you woke up! You can be saved! I knew it!"

"What are you talking about?"

Percy went pale, "Ummm...nothing. It's nothing. Come on, we should find that portal before Sam and Dean come looking for us. Huh...I wonder how much trouble we're going to get in for vaporizing two students. How's the Mist going to cover that up? At least we know it sort of works here. I didn't even see that other girl's monster leg."

"Percy, what did you mean by waking me up? Why was I in the Big House?"

"I...look, it's better if you don't think about it. Come on, please?"

The way he pleaded with his eyes, Aella couldn't help but melt. ' _Damn seal pup eyes'_ , she thought. ' _No wonder Annabeth listens to him.'_

"Fine, but you do owe me an explanation eventually."

Percy said nothing. He stood up, offering a hand to her.

"I think we should check the top floor. Something tells me that magical portals and horrible things are usually in the most difficult place to get to."

"Just like a video game," Aella agreed, following after him up the steps.

They ran all the way up to the top floor, Percy never letting go of her hand. He hadn't let go since he'd pulled her back over the railing. Had he been scared that he was going to fail on his mission to bring her back to their world or was it the fear of being alone here?

They came up to the top floor. Looking around, they spotted a window that led to the fire escape and quickly went to it, opening it and slipping out. Standing out in the cold night, they looked up towards the roof, wondering how they were going to make it up there. That was when Aella had an idea.

"I wonder if my horse followed us here? He vanished somewhere around Tennessee."

"Can you call it?" Percy frowned, "I couldn't call Blackjack."

"Blackjack?"

"Pegasus I made friends with. Nice guy."

"...ok…" Aella shrugged, then she looked out to the night sky and shouted, "Hey storm horse thing! I need a pick up!"

A few people from the street below hooted up at her, suggesting that she share whatever drink she had with them.

"I don't think it worked—woah!"

Percy jumped back as the anemoi thuellai suddenly rushed up to meet them, floating next to the fire escape. The horse snorted and Percy suddenly let out a loud cough, arching an eyebrow at it.

"What is up with rude horses? He says he's been following us for ages waiting to be called."

"He? You don't mean?" Aella pointed to the storm spirit.

"Yeah. He goes by— No, I am not calling you that. That is not a proper name either."

Aella stared, "I still can't get over this whole 'talking to horses thing'. I'd heard a rumor that you could but…"

"It's a Poseidon thing. Anyway, this is Echo. No, I am not going to call you the other names."

"Nice to meet you, Echo. Do you mind if we hitch a ride up to the roof?" Aella asked.

"You can go up to the roof. I don't fly." Percy said quickly.

"Oh...right. Son of the sea. Well, I guess I'm on my own then unless you find another way up."

"I'll think of something," Percy agreed, "Shout if you find a magical portal of doom up there."

Aella climbed over the side of the railing and onto the storm horse. Thought she could feel the hum of energy beneath his form, like a gentle static. Once she was settled, she gently nudged his side like she would a pegasus and said,

"All right, let's go."

Aella had never ridden a horse before, but riding on the storm spirit came naturally to her. She didn't have to understand horses the way Percy did to work with Echo. Echo seemed to know exactly where she wanted to go and at what speed without a word from her. ' _What did I do before I had a magic horse?'_ she thought, grinning slightly to herself as they rose up towards the dorm roof. Echo hovered just over the ground, low enough for Aella to hop off without too much trouble.

"Wait here, I'll be back," she said quietly, once more engaging her bow.

Walking along the dark rooftop, she felt a small thrill of excitement and fear. She couldn't see any sign of a portal, but she could smell the sulfur. ' _Where is it?'_ she wondered, keeping her bow at the ready. In spite her nerves, she didn't feel the sense of urgency that usually accompanied fear. She didn't sense anything up on the roof with her. Of course, she hadn't sensed either monster in the dorm.

"Well, at least I know that whoever my godly parent was, they didn't give me a spidey sense."

As soon as she said it, she heard a bang behind her and the roof shook beneath her feet.

Pivoting, Aella turned, bow drawn, and saw that a portal had opened up. It was bigger than the one she'd seen in New Mexico—bright red and rippling the space around it as it hung like an ugly tear in the air. ' _Well...I've found it. Now what?'_ She realized that she really had gone in blind. How did someone close a hole to another reality? She was tempted to shoot an arrow at it, but what if it flew through and hit someone she cared about back home?

The other portal had simply closed up on its own after the monster had been killed. Did that mean she had to kill all of the monsters in the area that had come through this particular portal or had the last time been pure luck?

"So you're the source of this mess."

A man in a pale trench coat had suddenly appeared beside her. He was looking up towards the portal with a grave expression, tilting his head slightly as he studied it.

"Are you a god?" Aella asked, lowering her bow ever so slightly.

He seemed genuinely confused by the question, but rather than answer her he said, "You are not whole."

"And you've got a hole in your head. I asked what you are. If you don't want to answer that, then help me figure out what to do about this thing."

"Do? Being in close proximity should be enough to seal a small rift like this. Come here."

He suddenly grabbed her wrist and began to pull her towards the portal. Aella yelped, feeling a sudden pain from his touch. He let her go, looking at her wide-eyed.

"I did not expect that reaction."

"The yelling or the burning?" she gasped, holding her wrist close to her chest.

"Both," he said frankly.

Looking at her, he gestured towards her wrist. She lifted up her arm, pulling back the sleeve of her jacket. The skin was raw and blistered where he had touched it, but the handprint was slowly beginning to fade.

"What did you do to me?"

"Nothing intentional. Even if you have the blood of pagan gods you still bear a human soul. You are different from the demigods of this world."

Clearing her throat, Aella pressed, "You were saying I can close that?"

"Perhaps, yes, if the monsters from your world that came through this portal have been killed."

"The only ones from our world were the Gorgon, Medusa, and those empousa I think. Percy and I only took care of the empousa and our friends were going to go kill Arachne."

When the strange man said nothing in response, Aella sighed and trudged towards the portal. She felt silly, standing in front of the swirling mass, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

"The monsters from your world must still be in our world," the man said quietly, "I'll go find them."

And in the blink of an eye he was gone again. Frowning, Aella looked back at the portal. There had to be something she could do. Looking closer at it, Aella was half tempted to try and poke it or punch it.

"I wouldn't if I were you."

Yet another person had suddenly appeared beside her. This one, however, was familiar.

"Ruby."

"Glad to see you're alive and well. Sam told me, but it's one thing to hear and another to see." Ruby walked up and stood beside her, looking into the portal, "You know, I have a theory. That knife of yours. You used it to exorcise that witch, right?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Well it's worth a shot, right?" she said, jerking her thumb towards the portal, "Try cutting it."

Aella unsheathed her knife and walked up to the portal, "Do I just slash at it or—? I mean, that seems way too easy."

Ruby shrugged. Aella sighed and still feeling rather foolish, made to cut towards the rend in reality.

The reaction was immediate. As with the portal in the basement, there was a loud explosion and Aella was thrown backwards, nearly taking a tumble off the roof. She blinked, trying to clear her head. She didn't get a chance to before she was grabbed once more. The man in the trench coat was back.

"What have you done?" he snarled, dragging her up, "Do you realize what you've done? You were working with the demons all along, we're you? Dean told me to wait and see. I've stayed quiet, wanting to believe that you were true to your soul, but this is the proof."

"Cas! Wait!"

Sam and Dean came clambering up over the edge of the roof near the fire escape where she'd left Percy. Cas frowned (if it were possible to frown more) at Dean.

"She broke the portal before all of the monsters were sent back."

"I wanted to close it!" Aella said, "Honest! That's all I was trying to do! I thought I was helping."

Cas looked down at her and slowly let go of her jacket front. There was a warning in his eyes. It almost would have been better if he'd snapped at her. The look he gave her was more terrifying than words. If there was ever a being she'd met so far in this world that reminded her of a god, this was it.

"What do we do now?" Sam asked, "Can this still be fixed?"

"I don't know. I'll look into it."

"Wait, Cas— and he's gone. I hate when he does that."

Aella rushed over to where the portal had been, hoping to find some remains of it. There was no sign that it had ever existed though. Ruby was gone as well, she realized. Typical. It was just like the times when she'd been at the center of some madness at school. All of the actual perpetrators were gone, leaving her at the epicenter of the mess.

"Where's Percy?" she asked finally, trying not to let her voice shake.

"He's still on the fire escape. He said something about not wanting to come up because of some bad experiences with heights. He mentioned something about blowing up the Gateway Arch in your world."

"Oh yeah, that...yeah…"

Sam and Dean stared at her a moment, clearly wanting to know the story behind this, but let it go for the time being.

"That man. You called him 'Cas'. He's a friend of yours?"

"Something like that. He's an angel. He sort of raised me from Hell."

"An angel? Wait, he raised...you were in hell?"

The look Dean gave her quelled any questions she might have wanted to ask. He turned and started heading back towards the edge of the roof, Sam following after him without a word.

Echo had left, leaving Sam and Dean to help Aella clamber down to the fire escape. Sam went down first, then Dean helped pass her off. Percy looked relieved to see her safe.

"I heard the bang and assumed you blew up the dorm or something," he said as they made their way all the way down the fire escape.

"Well, you're not wrong. There's no permanent damage though."

Percy nodded but didn't say much after that. Sam, Dean, and Percy were all too quiet, each holding their own secrets. Aella supposed she wasn't any different. While they walked, she thought back to her vision or dream or whatever it had been. Percy had told Chiron there hadn't been a quest, but now she knew that was a lie. Whether he'd actually lied to Chiron and Chiron had found out on his own about the quest, or they'd both pretended there was nothing to keep it from her, she didn't know or care.

There was one secret she wanted to find out. Once they were back at Professor Elm's house, Aella led Percy back up to their room and shut the door.

"Percy. I remember what happened now from back when I fell. I saw Chiron and he told me a quest. He said to tell you. You did stop to get a quest before you left Camp, didn't you?"

Percy sat down on the bed, looking down at his hands. Rather than answer, he asked, "Was that all he said?"

"He said you can tell me the truth now."

"Aella," Percy began, "Please, don't ask me to do that. Not yet, not until we've found a way to fix all of this."

"Chiron said-"

"Chiron was also willing to let you figure things out here on your own! The situation is different now so that 'truth' doesn't matter!" Percy snapped, "I promise, I will tell you, but not yet. Just wait a little longer."

"Percy?"

He was already standing up and heading out of the room, leaving Aella alone.


	13. Chapter 12 - RepostUpdated

Aella woke to the sound of tapping on the window. Groaning, she sat up, pushing back the covers. She noticed with a glum sigh that Percy wasn't in the bed. She had hoped he would come back, but it seemed he was still upset about the prophecy and whatever else he was holding back from her. ' _I wish there was someone I could ask about it'_ , she thought, brushing back her hair from her eyes. There was no way she could ask Sam or Dean. Bobby was a possibility, but he had enough to think about without her giving some cryptic prophecy.

Swinging out of the bed, Aella tiptoed across the room and made her way over to the window, prying it open as quietly as she could. The old wood resisted her tug but eventually gave way.

Standing outside on the roof was a man with bright blonde hair and a casual 'I'm beautiful but rugged, and I know it' look. With a squeak, Aella jumped out the window and grabbed Apollo, dragging him with her off further down the roof.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, looking around to make sure that no one happened to be eavesdropping (she'd noticed that Richmonders had a habit of sitting out on the roof to chat).

Apollo gave her a look that suggested that if she hadn't been related to his alternate reality version of himself he would have probably vaporized her right there. Hesitantly, Aella let go of his leather jacket.

"I'm here to lend you a hand since it seems your business is interfering with my business."

"I thought you didn't want to deal with me since I was with the Winchesters?"

Apollo looked a little grey in the light of the moon, Aella noted, and there were dark circles under his eyes that definitely hadn't been there before. He crossed his arms, avoiding her gaze as he spoke.

"I didn't want to get involved, but some weird things have been happening since I spoke with you and I have a feeling you're at the center of it."

"What sort of weird things?"

"Well, for one thing, I haven't seen the Nemean lion in at least three hundred years," he paused, "I also saw your friend appear from out of nothing. Care to explain that? I know he's a demigod like you."

Aella shuffled to get a better perch on the roof, "I'm from an alternate reality and so is Percy and the Nemean lion you saw. We're trying to fix things, but we really don't know how. We have an idea on how to close the portals now, but not how to stop them from appearing."

Apollo stared at her, then laughed. Aella had to quickly hush him, looking nervously towards the windows.

"Another world? Sure you're not a child of Hermes? That sounds like a trick of his, not one of...well, it doesn't matter. So the demons punched a hole through reality, huh? Well, that's impressive, I'll give them that. They'll do anything to make that whole prophecy of theirs come true. I doubt I can help much."

A sudden thought struck Aella, "Wait, you can help. There's a prophecy besides the whole end of the world one. I think it'll break the demon's contract—the one the demon made with the witch that summoned me."

Apollo perked up at this, looking slightly less grey, "Prophecy? Does it have any rhymes? Perhaps it's a haiku?"

"Umm...no. Huh. Sorry, it's just, you sounded exactly like the Apollo from my world for a second there."

"The Apollo from your world must be very suave then. Now, let's hear that prophecy and I'll see what I think. Who knows, maybe I've sent that prophecy to someone before here."

" _The Harbinger shall wake in a world a monster_

 _Pacts of blood will be made while others are controlled_

 _Prophecies will come to pass, armies will amass_

 _Unless the trident fails to catch the wind._ "

"What an ugly prophecy, are you sure it's real? I would never give something so...lackluster."

"Chiron told me."

Apollo frowned, "He's still around? I shouldn't be surprised. About that prophecy though...if I had to make any guess, you're the Harbinger mentioned in it."

"Me?" Aella started, "But isn't a harbinger bad? And it says 'as a monster'. I'm not a monster, I'm a demigod."

"Not in this world," Apollo said, "If you're not human you're a monster in the hunter's book unless you're unlucky enough to be an angel, although frankly some of them are just as bad as monsters. As for whether a harbinger is bad...well, they're messengers, but the word isn't usually used in a good way."

"So ok, the first part is about what? Me traveling here and being the messenger for what? They already knew Lucifer was rising, so I doubt I'm the signal for that."

"End of the world usually has more than one calling card," he said, "I think that the word 'monster' plays into it though. Huh. I forgot how much fun prophecy riddles are. I should make more."

"Please don't."

"Ok, ok. Pft, people don't worship me enough anyway for me to make any important ones. _Pacts of blood will be made while others are controlled_? Not sure about the last part, but the first is likely about that witch's deal."

" _Prophecies will come to pass, armies will amass_? That's about Lucifer, isn't it...I don't want to be a harbinger of that though!" Aella sighed and looked down towards her bare feet.

"I'm sure it's not that bad. The last line offers a bit of hope, although failing to catch could mean—"

He stopped, looking towards the window. Putting a finger to his lips, he took Aella's hand and gently tugged her towards the wall near the window, pressing her against it. Without another word, he vanished just as the window opened to reveal a rather confused looking Sam.

"Who were you talking to?"

"What are you doing up?" Aella countered.

Sam shrugged, stepping out onto the roof, "It doesn't matter. I've been meaning to talk to you anyway."

"About what?"

Sam sat down and waited for Aella to do the same. It was nearly four in the morning if Aella had to make a guess, but the city still had some life to it. Students were walked hunched backed from the library or the bar towards the dorms and off in the distance she saw a police car lazily driving by, heading towards the park.

"That angel you met earlier, Cas, he seemed to think you were working with the demons."

"I'm not!" Aella began, but Sam waved her off.

"I know, I didn't think you were, at least not in the way that Cas thinks. Have you spoken with Ruby at all besides that night at the motel?"

Aella nodded slowly, "Well, yes. Up on the roof. She was the one who told me to cut the portal. I shouldn't have listened to her. It just made things worse. I thought...maybe it would be a simple answer, you know?"

Sam put a hand on her shoulder, "It's not your fault. You didn't know any better. I probably would have done the same thing."

"Hey, Sam, who is Ruby? I mean, I know who she is, but…?"

"Ruby is an ally. She's not really Dean's favorite person in the world, or Cas's, for obvious reasons, but she doesn't want Lucifer rising any more than you or I."

"If she's on our side, why don't Dean and Cas let her help? Why does she hide from everyone except you?"

She noticed Sam avoiding her eyes. He was suddenly very interested in a stop sign on the other side of the street.

"Demons and angels don't mix, even reformed demons like Ruby. Simple as that. Dean follows what Cas says since Cas raised him from Hell."

"Why was your brother sent to Hell? He doesn't seem _that_ bad."

"That's not really for me to tell. Look, you should probably be in bed, Aella. We can figure out what to do about the portal debacle in the morning."

Aella wanted to protest, but Sam gave her a look that reminded her of Chiron's 'no arguing' face. Crawling back in through the window, she said goodnight to Sam and tried to go back to sleep. She thought it would be impossible, given the time, but it wasn't long after her head hit the pillow that she fell asleep.

* * *

Pancakes. The table was filled with them. Percy was sitting at one end, his plate piled high with blueberry pancakes. Dean sat at the other end, eating a plate full of bacon. At first, neither took notice of Aella, though it soon became obvious it wasn't because they were upset with her; the pancakes were just that good.

"Where's Sam?" Aella asked, taking an empty chair and a few pancakes, "Is he sleeping in today?"

"I think he mentioned something about research," Dean said, "He went to go talk with one of the medieval literature professors...or was it a Bible professor?"

"Medieval literature," Percy confirmed, grabbing another handful of pancakes, "You have to try these. The professor and his wife made them before they went off to work."

Aella cut one of the pancakes with her fork and took a bite. They were incredibly fluffy and had a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon to them. It wasn't long before she'd eaten nearly as many as Percy.

"What's he seeing the professor about anyway?"

"Bobby sent him something and he wants to look into it himself before he shares. It looked like some old poem if you ask me."

"A poem?"

"It's probably nothing, like Dean said," Percy put in quickly, "Are you done eating? We should go see if we can hunt down that monster as soon as you're ready. Professor Elm said we could stay a few more days to hunt it down."

"Well, I wanted another—hey!" Percy was already taking her hand and practically dragging her upstairs, "Hang on!"

Percy didn't let go though until they were back in the room. He began to rummage through her things, tossing her a clean shirt and her dagger.

"What are you doing? What's gotten into you, Percy?"

Percy tossed a shoe at her, "We don't have a lot of time. Look, you asked me last night what else there was to know, and this is my answer. I'm going to make sure everything works out so you don't have to know."

Aella stared at him, barely flinching when the next shoe hit her, "Percy…"

"You're my friend, Aella. Even before you were my friend I'd made up my mind about this."

She didn't understand. She could see him doing something for Annabeth or Grover, but her? It was like he said; he had hardly known her and now here he was acting like he was trying to save her from some grave prophecy. Was there some line to the prophecy she hadn't understood, or perhaps that Chiron had left out? What was it Percy didn't want to tell her?

"Get dressed. I'll meet you downstairs in ten."

"And then what?"

"Well, we have to go kill Medusa again, don't we?"

* * *

Before Aella and Percy had even made it to the bottom of the stairs, Dean was there, looking up at them with his arms crossed.

"What is it?" Percy asked, "Feel left out? Don't worry, we can handle _one_ gorgon."

"Maybe I am feeling a little left out," Dean said in a sardonic tone, "Percy, you should go hang out with Sam. You mentioned you could read ancient Greek this morning and apparently he wants you to look over this professor's translation."

Percy grinned, although Aella could see his shoulders tense a little, "He thinks I'll do better than a professor? Won't Annabeth be proud of me."

"Who?"

"Nevermind," Aella put in, "So should we wait until later to hunt the gorgon? This doesn't seem like something we should wait to do."

"No, you're still going to be hunting the Gorgon, but I'm going to be coming with you. I've never faced Medusa, so I thought it would be fun."

"If you think I can't handle it because the whole thing last night—" Aella began, but Dean shook his head.

"I wouldn't take you if I didn't think you couldn't handle it. Just ask Sam. Percy, Sam's supposed to be in the...Richardson Building? Just go there and ask where Professor Mills' office is. We'll catch up around lunch."

Percy gave Dean a wonky salute, but his eyes didn't leave Aella. There was a silent question there. She nodded though, smiling softly. She wasn't overly concerned. She could handle one gorgon even without her enchanted bow (she didn't think she could show that to Dean without getting a few questions).

"I'll see you two in a bit then," Percy said, jumping down the last few steps and walking around Dean, "Stay safe you two."

"Yeah, you too. Don't talk to strangers." Dean looked back to Aella, arching an eyebrow, "You're really just going in with a dagger? What do they teach hunters in your world? Come on, I've got some spare weapons in the trunk."

"If they're guns I've never used one," Aella admitted, "Hunters from my world are a little old-fashioned."

"Seriously? Guess they like the challenge. Come on, it's not too hard. Just don't shoot me again, alright?"

Grinning despite herself, Aella followed Dean out to the car, where he unlocked the trunk. It was just as impressive as she remembered, filled to the brim with an entire armory. Fishing through the various stocks, Dean finally pulled out a handgun, passing it over to her. It was much heavier than she had imagined it would be and immediately felt foreign in her hand.

"This is my old baretta, one of the first guns I got. What do you think? Hang on, don't hold it like that, it's not going to explode."

Aella pressed the gun back into his hands, shaking her head, "It's not right. I don't want a gun. What if I hurt someone?"

"That's the point?"

"I mean a person, not a monster. My dagger doesn't hurt mortals. I'd rather use that. I can't...I don't want to have that sort of power over life and death."

Dean's green eyes softened. He put the gun back into the trunk and after grabbing his own weapons, locked it up.

"I don't blame you," Dean said after a moment, "It's a lot of responsibility. If you'd rather stick with the dagger, that's fine. I've got your back. Just no cutting portals until we kill all the monsters this time, all right?"

They decided to start by searching the student art buildings. Hearing the rumors of new, mysterious statues appearing, it seemed like the most logical place to begin. The closer they got to the art building, the more faded flannel and paint covered hands they saw. Most of the students looked half dead, barely revived by their coffee still clutched in one hand, their canvases in the other.

"Midterms or something," Dean commented, "Art and medical students have it the worst according to Professor Elm."

"Medical students?"

"Apparently this school does a bit of everything, but their art and medical programs are the best."

Aella smirked, "It's sort of funny, isn't it? A lot of people would say those are complete opposites but look at Apollo—from mythology I mean. He's the god of healing, but also music and poetry."

"Yeah well, he's also the god of plagues and he's also been killing hunters, remember?"

Aella remained silent. She hunched her shoulders, looking down at the crags in the desiccated sidewalk.

"Gods...are different in your world, aren't they?" Dean finally said, "They must not kill a lot, or maybe they don't exist at all? The way you look whenever we bring up about Apollo, it's like it's a surprise, but a hunter would know how dangerous gods are."

"I know they are," Aella said, "They mostly...exist now. Where I come from. Mortals don't matter to them in the same way they do here."

No, they sat on their thrones up on Olympus and sent demigods to do their work. She wasn't bitter about this, not exactly. It was hard to place a feeling towards the gods when they remained isolated, even from their own children. In a way, she supposed that was a good thing if Troy was anything to go by. Gods and mortals mixing in each other's affairs never turned out well. If anyone wanted proof, all they needed to do was ask a demigod.

"Guess you guys have enough monsters to worry about besides gods. Hey, I think we're here."

They stood out in front of a building that looked like some governor had built it a hundred years earlier. It had been restored, with a fresh coat of white paint on the front pillars and power washed brick face. Overall, it looked normal enough except for the mass of statues out front and the horde of students sitting with giant two-foot long clipboards and sketchpads, all intent on drawing a statue in the center of the lawn.

"This is the art building?" Aella asked, "It looks...well, it doesn't look like a school."

"It's one of them. There are apparently three of them, but this is the one where the statues keep appearing. I found some missing persons reports on the area too and guess where most of the missing people are from? They're all art students. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I think that's one of them."

Even from a distance, Aella could tell that the statue was too real. She'd seen some nice statues before at the museum, ones that made the fabric look soft to the touch, but these ones almost seemed to breathe beneath the stone.

The two walked up to the students surrounding the statue. One of them, a young man with a beanie hat and too short trousers, turned around, looking annoyed.

"You're casting a shadow. Do you mind?"

Dean frowned and dug a badge out of his pocket, flashing it to the man the same way he had to Aella back in the basement a lifetime ago.

"I just have a few questions. I'm detective Dharma, I'm here about some recent disappearances. Mind if I take a moment of your time?"

The man looked at the badge for a moment, then shrugged, brushing his waxed mustache, "I don't mind. My roommate's all worked up about his girlfriend going missing. Who's the kid though?"

Aella grumbled, "I'm not a kid…"

"This is my niece. She's here for career day. You don't mind if she observes?"

The man shrugged and set his work down, leading the way so they were out of earshot of the other art students.

"You mentioned that you know one of the missing people?" Dean asked, crossing his arms, "I'm guessing that someone reported her missing?"

"Yeah, but no one listened. She's been in trouble before, so people think it's just another one of her stunts. All that was back in high school though, you know? Since getting into the art program she's been completely focused. She's even has a job lined up once she graduates. She wouldn't just...leave."

Aella nodded silently to Dean before slipping away. He could interview everyone. That wasn't her style. Well, actually, she didn't have a style really, not when it came to fighting out in the real world, but she had decided then that that wasn't what she wanted to do. It was far too tedious. Maybe Percy was rubbing off on her.

Heading into the building, Aella walked down the silent hallway. At first, she'd assumed everyone was in class, but upon further inspection, she realized that everything was empty. Stuffing her hands into her pockets, she frowned to herself. She'd never liked old buildings. When she was younger she'd watch haunting shows with her mother, even though they'd left her unable to sleep at night. She had been able to psych herself out when she was younger with logic, but after discovering she was a half-blood and the whole underworld and everything was real? It was a little hard to use science to explain ghosts. _There aren't ghosts here though_ , she reasoned, _Just Medusa. That's not nearly as bad._

She hadn't really considered what she would do once she found Medusa. She didn't have anything reflective to use like the myth. She would have to rely on her senses she supposed, but she had a feeling that would try her luck. If only she could catch Medusa off guard when she found her, she could use her bow to kill her from a distance before the gorgon even knew that she was there.

Aella peered cautiously into each classroom as she went through the halls. Most were scattered with dried paint, high stools, and easels. Surprisingly she didn't see a single statue. Maybe the new statues around the campus really were just a new art stunt.

Aella felt a sudden pressure on her shoulder and screamed, throwing her head back and pivoting away.

Fortunately, the moment her blow hit flesh, she heard an all too familiar 'son of a bitch!'. Dean took a few steps back, holding his chest.

"Why did you do that? You have a hard head you know! If I was any shorter you would have broken my nose!"

"You surprised me...we're sort of looking for Medusa, remember?"

"I know, I'm not stupid," Dean grumbled, taking out a small mirror that looked like it had been plucked from a makeup compact.

"Where did you—?"

"Don't ask. Anyway, have you checked the second floor yet?"

Aella shook her head, "I've only covered the first floor so far and nothing."

Dean took out his gun, holding it pointed downward, but at the ready, "After you then."

Aella led the way, drawing her dagger as they began walking up the steps. Dean was surprisingly quiet given his stature, she noted. His boots hardly made a sound on the old wood floors.

Creeping up towards the top of the steps, Dean whispered for her to wait and held out his mirror, checking. Nothing.

Dean nodded her on. Aella took lead once more. She kept her eyes on the floor, straining with her ears for the slightest rustle of fabric or footstep that wasn't theirs. Every time they came to a classroom door Aella would open it ever so slightly and Dean would use the mirror to peek inside. Two of the classrooms actually had students working, but otherwise, the building seemed empty.

As they neared the end of the hall, Aella looked to Dean glumly, "There's a chance she left."

"Let's hope not. It'll be a pain to track her. Ok, next door on three. One, two—"

He never got to three. The door opened up and suddenly Aella was thrown back as she saw a flutter of cloth.

"Cover your eyes!" Dean shouted over the sound of a shot (Aella hoped it was his).

Aella kept her eyes pressed shut, her stomach squirming at the confusion of sounds around her. There were screams from students, the sound of fabric ripping, and the thud of flesh hitting something hard. Then she heard a pained shout from Dean.

"No!" Aella cried, opening her eyes ignoring the consequences.

Thankfully, the Gorgon had her back to her. Even from behind the sight before her made her want to run in terror. Dean had ripped off her scarf, revealing a mass of tangled snakes all standing on end. For a moment, she was paralyzed with fear, unable to look away.

"Aella! Run!"

She was finally able to break her gaze away. Dean was lying beneath Medusa, straddled, her hands wrapped around his neck. His eyes were closed and he was bleeding from his nose and lip, but she knew he wasn't unconscious or worse. He was fighting her with everything he had. Where was his gun though? Then she saw it halfway down the hall, too far for either of them to reach.

Whether it was her own fear that drove her or the sight of Dean's blood, Aella suddenly felt her heart begin to thunder in her chest. Her vision seemed to tunnel and without thinking she charged the gorgon, jumping onto her back and grabbing her serpentine hair. Medusa yelped, letting go of Dean and clawing at Aella. Luckily, she couldn't turn her face around to look at Aella. She had dropped her dagger at some point and her bow was too cumbersome for close combat like this, not that it mattered. Between the snake bites and Medusa's struggles, it was all Aella could do to stay on.

Already she could feel the snake's venom starting to mix in her blood. ' _Well, I won't go down without taking her with me!'_ Aella thought, rebelling against the burning in her veins. She felt something shift inside her like she'd tapped into a muscle she'd never realized she'd had. Suddenly Medusa was screaming and Aella could smell the stench of burning flesh. Then she was falling as the gorgon crumpled beneath her, trying to flee Aella.

Aella gasped as she hit the floor. She let go of Medusa, dragging herself away with the last of the strength.

"Oh no you don't!" Dean's voice suddenly broke through the dim and Aella sat up just in time to see Dean spear her dagger into what she could only assume was Medusa's back.

It no longer looked like Medusa. Before she began to disintegrate into dust, Aella saw for the briefest moment what looked like...well, she didn't want to even think of what it looked like. Medusa was burned almost beyond recognition.

As soon as the corpse collapsed into dust, a portal burst to life in front of them, stinking of sulfur. There was a loud bang as it shut once more, Medusa's remnants now gone.

The moment it closed Dean ran to her. At first, she thought he was coming to help her up, but then she realized he had pressed the dagger to her throat. She stared up into his green eyes and felt something inside of her break at the animosity she saw in them.

"Give me one reason not to," Dean growled, "One reason."

"Because I'm human," Aella said as calmly as she could. Her voice cracked as she said it, "Dean…"

"Humans Torch maybe," Dean glared, but then to her relief, he lowered the dagger, "Any idea what bit you?"

Aella shook her head. It was all she could manage at the moment. What _had_ she done? She wondered why Dean had backed down so easily, but before she could ponder it too much he was scooping her up, hauling her over his shoulder like a sack.

"We'll talk about this later," Dean said, "Monster or not, you saved me and I'm not so much of an ass I won't give you a chance to prove yourself."


	14. Message to Readers

Hello all! So the spam of updating chapters is over. Some of the old readers may notice that the updated chapters have ended before the previous version's most updated chapter...well, that's because I'm kicking out the last four chapters and starting them completely fresh. I have rewritten, condensed, and partially deleted about 25 chapters, making them into 12. Essentially, chapter 1-12 are reworked from the original fanfic. There have been some minor changes to them, but for the most part, old readers will find them to be familiar. Chapter 13 and on will be entirely new content for both new and old readers.

So to my old readers, thank you for keeping up and rereading the patched up chapters. Thank you so much for your patience.


	15. Chapter 13

Dean wasn't sure what to make of the girl he currently had slung over his shoulder. He'd known there was something fishy about her ever since the incident in the mall, but he'd let the feeling slide. Bobby trusted her after all and beyond having what might be the world's shittiest luck she hadn't done anything wrong. Besides, he'd reasoned she was just a kid, barely thirteen. A kid who was dying in his arms, he reminded himself. He couldn't forget the sight of the fried gorgon though. He hadn't seen a fire, but he'd felt the heat coming off of Aella. He'd barely been able to touch her when he'd first picked her up.

He could hear her mumbling something as he ran out of the building, ignoring the stares from the students who had gathered outside. Dean knew enough about snakebites to know that without knowing what had bitten her, it would be difficult for the doctors to help her. Worse, they were dealing with monster snakes. _'Of course, it had to be monster snakes._ ' Part of him wondered if it would be a kindness to just let her die. She clearly wasn't human, or if she was she was cursed. Dean felt her hand grab onto his jacket and before he'd made a conscious decision about it he was running back towards the professor's house. He wasn't going to let her die.

Dean stopped running about a block from the professor's house. What was the professor going to do for her? Hell, what could Sam and him do? He was tempted to call Castiel, but he doubted that Cas would help her now. ' _At least I know why Cas was pissed last night._ ' That made him stop. She wasn't a human. He knew that for certain now. ' _She tried to save me anyway though. She knows how we are about monsters and she still did whatever she could to help me.'_ Did that make her any different from Ruby though? Dean didn't trust or like her (no, that was a lie, he did like her), so why should he make an exception for this kid? He looked down at her and found that, despite this new knowledge, he couldn't bring himself to let her die. Dean shifted Aella so he could take out his phone. He hit the speed dial for Bobby and held the phone up to his ear with his shoulder, waiting. It didn't take long for him to answer.

"If you're calling I'm assuming that you need something. What do you need me to look up?"

"Give me whatever you have on magical snake bites."

"Say what now?"

"Magical snake bites. We hunted down a gorgon and it turns out their face isn't the only deadly thing about them."

"I've got to be honest with you, Dean. I've never even heard of someone being bitten by a gorgon's hair. Usually, they're turned to stone first."

"It's the kid, Bobby. She was trying to save me and she jumped onto the damned thing's back."

He didn't mention what she'd done to the gorgon after she'd jumped. He didn't doubt that Bobby had some notion about her abilities or at least her species (whatever it was). There was a long pause from Bobby and Dean thought he could hear the rapid shuffle of footsteps, no doubt on the way to the bookshelf.

"Any idea what the snake looked like that bit her? I know there were probably a few hundred on the Gorgon's head, but usually, they carry a specific type."

Dean tried to think back, "The snake sort of had this horn looking thing on its head."

"Horn? Hang on." There was a long pause and then Bobby asked, "Did it have a sort of zigzag pattern on the back?"

"I think so?"

"Huh…I did a quick search of Mediterranean snakes and there are only a few venomous ones. You're looking at a nose-horned viper. Dean, you need to get her to the hospital now. Doesn't matter if it's some supernatural snake bite or not. Tell them a ' _Vipera ammodytes_ ' bit her. The venom's got the full medley: proteolytic, neurotoxins, and hemotoxins. She's not going to last long if you don't do something now."

"Hmm, that _is_ a nasty combination. I don't think a mortal doctor could fix that."

Dean dropped the phone and reached for his gun, aiming it right between the eyes of a man with sun-bleached blonde hair. The man arched an eyebrow at Dean before giving him a small smirk.

"Oh Dean, you don't want to do that. I'm the only one who can save her now."

"Apollo I'm guessing?"

"Correct—and on the first try. And here I was thinking your brother was the brains of the Winchester operation."

"You want to save her. Why? Because she's some freak like you?"

He feigned insult, "Now that's just rude. She's hardly any more of a monster than you are."

Apollo drew a little closer, holding up his hands to show that he wasn't going to attack. He then leaned in as if to get a closer look at her.

"Well, I will be honest she _does_ have a bit more godly blood than the average demigod thanks to her mother's heritage. You _did_ know about that, didn't you? Ah, you're starting to piece it all together, Winchester. There's no need to worry though. She does have a human soul. She won't try to use you as a sacrifice or anything anytime soon. Now I suggest you follow me. She doesn't have much time and you want her alive."

He laughed at the look Dean gave him before he turned away and started to head towards the professor's house.

"Why do you want her alive?" Dean demanded but he followed nevertheless, stowing away his gun as he went, "So you can use her later?"

"Yes. And so you can too. That is why you're keeping her around, right?"

"We're helping her—or I was before she decided to go and incinerate Medusa."

That earned a thoughtful pause from Apollo. He looked back at Dean and Aella briefly, humming a note of curiosity.

"So that's what I was smelling before. Hmm, I'm surprised she hasn't been claimed yet given how much of her father's blood it seems that she's inherited."

"You seem to know a lot about her family," Dean noted as they neared the professor's house.

"I am her grandfather in another world. I don't look it, do I? I can't vouch for what my other self looks like of course, but here I'm gorgeous—"

Dean stopped. They had been hunting down Apollo this whole time and he was Aella's grandfather? Had she known? He cursed to himself. Of course, she'd known. That's why she'd acted so strangely every time Apollo had been brought up. He continued walking about, heading up to the front door of the professor's house. He didn't have to open the door: Apollo simply walked up to it and broke the lock. Dean gave him a 'really?' look, to which Apollo replied,

"Well, time _is_ of the essence." He paused as he went inside, nose wrinkling slightly, "You have a child of the sea here how interesting."

 _'He must mean Percy'_ , Dean thought, internally grimacing. Of course, Aella's friend would be a demigod too.

Dean led the way upstairs into the bedroom the two kids had been sharing and laid Aella down on the bed. He then looked expectantly at Apollo.

"Well? Heal her then."

"Are you sure you want me to? She is a monster after all, isn't she?"

"Just do it. It seems like Bobby likes her so I'll trust his opinion for now."

Apollo smirked and instead of going over to her, he went to the window and opened the curtains, letting the glow of the afternoon sun trickle into the room. He then went to stand in front of her, allowing both of them to be bathed in the light, and then he snapped his fingers. Almost instantly Aella gasped, bolting upright and coughing.

"She'll live."

"That's all you needed to do? Snap your damn fingers? Why did you make me carry her all the way here then?"

"Because I wanted to talk to you for a moment—ah, go to sleep for a moment won't you, Aella?" Apollo walked up to her and tapped her forehead. Her eyes rolled and she fell back, unconscious.

"You really like theatrics, don't you" Dean grumbled, "Alright. You wanted to talk then talk."

Apollo continued to look down at Aella for a long moment before speaking, "You'll have to learn to let her die if you want to save our world."

"Excuse me?" Dean resisted the urge to cross his arms, "What the hell does that mean? Weren't you the one just saying you needed her alive so you can use her?"

"For a time, yes. You're getting to be pretty familiar with prophecies, aren't you, Dean? Apparently, she was given one by someone from her world. I'm not talking about some vague 'gloom and doom apocalypse' one either. It's a prophecy from my other self so you'll have to excuse the terrible—"

"Just say it."

"The Harbinger shall wake in a world a monster,

Pacts of blood will be made while others are controlled,

Prophecies will come to pass, armies will amass,

Unless the trident fails to catch the wind."

Apollo made a face before continuing,

"Now, I'm fairly certain about most aspects of this, but they're unimportant for the moment. What is important for you is last part. These portals, you understand how they work now I hope? Unless all of the monsters that came through are sent back either through forced ejection via death or willingly passing through, the portals won't close permanently."

"So?"

"So Aella was the start of it. She was the first thing drawn through which means that she has to be the last thing to leave."

"Ok, so we chuck her back in after we kill whatever else came through."

Dean wasn't getting where this was going or why this was a problem. The solution seemed simple enough and he was getting really tired of looking at Apollo's mug. He seemed far too smug.

"That's what I thought too when all of this first started but then I heard the prophecy. Think about that last line. The trident has to fail to catch the wind."

Dean frowned, "You said that there's a child of the sea here. You meant Poseidon."

He knew enough about mythology to know that Poseidon's symbol was a trident. The prophecy seemed stupidly vague and poetic but he could just start to feel an idea tickling at the back of his mind. Apollo wasn't Aella's father—her father was some other god, one who apparently had a bit of a quirk with heat. ' _If I'm dealing with Greek myths…a god of fire? But that doesn't have anything to do with the wind'._

"I can see your struggling. Let me help you. What do you know about the four Anemoi?"

Dean arched an eyebrow. Then it hit him. He vaguely remembered the word appearing in one of the few books he'd read back when he'd briefly been enrolled at a school.

"Wind gods. She's the daughter of a wind god."

"And he gets it."

"So prophecies will happen—the one about the whole apocalypse of the world I'm guessing—unless Percy fails to catch her? No, not catch…save her? But from what? Our world? The witch's deal?"

Apollo shrugged, "Prophecies are difficult, even when they're almost entirely literally. Actually, sometimes those are the most difficult because they're so easy to misread. At some point though, you're going to have to stop the son of Poseidon from saving her if you want the breaches to close. My guess is, there will be a brief window right after she dies when all of the portals surge open. The son of Poseidon can jump through one then."

"More like we'll have to knock him unconscious and throw him through."

Percy's behavior was starting to make sense now. Dean had thought it was a simple hero complex—hell, he knew he'd had it when he was younger and sometimes it seemed like him and Sam still had it. They jumped in to try to save someone without thinking or planning (usually to fail). If Percy had known this prophecy beforehand, did he think he could stop it or change it? ' _Shit…just like we think we can do'._

"What you're telling me is that to save our world we have to let a kid die? I don't buy it."

Apollo laughed, "You never did like prophecies, but they're the very reason you're alive, aren't they? Remind me again, why were you pulled from hell?"

Dean glared at him, "You done here?"

"I am," he said, stretching his arms over his head. He looked down at Aella again, a strange look in his eyes, "Most of our children don't live long now, not that the camp's gone. It's a pity. Still, I like our world how it is. I don't want demons overrunning it. Take care of her until the other kid fails, alright?"

Dean blinked and Apollo was gone. He swore before he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Why was he so angry? Apollo was right—he saw both kids as monsters now. They fit neatly into the worldview he'd so carefully sculpted over the years to keep himself from going mad. There was human and there was monster. _'She has a human soul though…he said that didn't he?'_ But she was also only about a quarter human if his math was right. What about Percy? Was he the same or was he like Aella's mother, only a half-blood? He shook his head. 'Only a half-blood'. He needed a drink. First, he needed to call Bobby though.

* * *

Dean heard the door downstairs open and the voices of Sam and Dean carried up the stairs. He gave Aella one final glance before heading downstairs.

"How'd the translating go?" Dean asked, leaning against the banister.

"I hardly needed to be there. Kid's fluent in ancient Greek."

"What can I say? I have a gift," Percy grinned, "How'd your hunt go?"

"Fine. Aella's a bit tired so she's taking a nap. Percy, mind taking a look at an inscription Bobby found since you have such a 'gift'?"

Percy shook his head and followed Dean upstairs. Once they were in Aella's room, Dean shut the door, his previous smile now gone. Percy immediately shifted. Dean could see how he angled his body so his weight was more evenly distributed and he could move at a moment's notice into a more defensive stance.

"I'm not going to attack you, kid. Just need to clarify a few things. You and Aella are demigods. Don't try to lie I already know."

"How-?"

"Aella roasted a gorgon. Apollo had to pay us a little visit to heal her."

"Apollo did _what_? But the gods never get directly involved with mortal affairs. He healed her?"

Dean nodded, "I was surprised too but for a different reason I think."

Percy shifted under his gaze, looking towards Aella. ' _So he is aware of what the last line implies…_ '

"What are you trying to save her from? You realize if you do, you'll cost a whole lot of people their lives."

Percy rounded on him, snapping, "I understand that! I've been dealing with prophecies for a long time."

Dean's eyes softened. "You lost someone, didn't you?"

It was as if he'd slapped him. Percy immediately seemed to crumble. He looked down the tension that Dean had seen earlier falling away to something more emotionally guarded.

"There was a girl…her brother thought I'd protect her but she sacrificed herself to save us. And then another one…"

' _They really are just kids…godly blood or not…_ ' Dean went to Percy and tentatively embraced him. In a low voice, he said, "You can't save everyone you know, not always. Sam and I try every damn hunt to save as many people as we can but sometimes it's all you can do to just stop the monster."

"I know I can save Aella though…I have to."

"At what cost though? I know this ain't your world but you've met the people here. I'm all for giving prophecies the middle finger, trust me, that's what we're trying to do right now. Just…make sure you weigh all your options when the time comes."

"There are no options. I save Aella and I'll stop the demons that think they can use us." Percy looked up at Dean, his green eyes stormy.

He wasn't sure why, but he believed Percy. Shaking his head, Dean scruffed Percy's hair before jerking a thumb over at Aella.

"So I'm not sure how long she's going to be out for. Apollo knocked her out so we could talk earlier."

"I'll keep an eye on her."

Dean nodded, "In the meantime: this whole demigod business stays between me and you two, got it? I don't want you to tell Sam any of it, not even the prophecy."

"Why?"

Dean looked down at Percy, "Because he'd probably try to do the same damn thing you are."


End file.
